Legacy of Arthias
by Shikkoku Kiyoshi
Summary: COTS. Sarieth wants to get his brother out of enemy lines and back home. Kalent wants to leave Dalkia, but he's starting to grow attached to his new unit and it's leader. The fact that there is a war going on during all of this isn't very helpful to either of them. UPDATE: Changed the title (older chapters will still have old one, but they will be revised shortly)
1. The Beginning

Shikkoku: I do not own Soul Calibur or it's characters, the almighty forces at Namco does.

If you don't know who I am yet, my name is Shikkoku Kiyoshi, and this is my Soul Calibur story based on Chronicles of the Sword. I always though that it was a well though out part of the game. Well at least story-wise. Gameplay wise, it was really, really frustrating at times.

And by the way, playing COTS all the way through in one sitting is _**not **_a good idea, trust me.

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_Tsurugi no Kirokusuru_

_By Shikkoku Kiyoshi_

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Abelia Schillfelt was getting back from some work that lasted longer than originally estimated. But she still couldn't just go to bed, for she was anxious. The military exams were starting tomorrow, and though she was a shoe-in for passing, there was still a little nervousness that came with the big day.

But the one thing that bothered her was the 19 year old cadet named Sarieth Spada.

The Spadas were a family of swordsmen who not only mastered various styles of weaponry, but forged them in mass numbers and sold them for the highest bidder. The Grandall army promised them funding and protection from other armies in exchange for exclusive use of their high quality weapons and shielding.

Sarieth was the oldest son of the current head of the business, and had more money than ninety percent of the other students in the Grandall academy, so people was surprised when he officially stated his desire to become a general in the looming war.

He claimed he partly wanted to join the military to assist his cousin, Riona, after her uncle died in a skirmish with a neighboring country awhile back, but some say he had his own reasons. Some were uncomfortable with his gung-ho attitude about going to war. Others thought that his family's status would mean he could flunk ever test he took and still 'buy' himself a top rank in the military, but Sarieth was determined to prove that he was taking this decision seriously.

Sarieth was very intelligent and popular with the other students, but he had a reputation of improvising strategies instead of planning, and had, at most, a casual relationship with the rules. He often wouldn't show up for classes, claiming family emergencies' when he really just went to his family's home to sleep the rest of the day away. Despite that, however, he was a very considerate person, and put his heart and soul into making sure no one thought he was 'unsuitable' to go to war.

Abelia found herself standing in front of his marked room a few minutes later. She knocked on the door to his room, and for awhile, he didn't answer. Finally, he unlocked the door, the signal Abelia needed to enter.

His room was very clean, except for the mass amounts of weapons strewn across the room, and the bed, messed up from him lying on it. Sarieth himself was disheveled, as he had been asleep only 3 hours since he returned from the Spada's compound to tell his parents the news. His brown short hair was sticking out everywhere. He still had the clothes he left with on, a white shirt and long leather pants, and they clung to his skin. His dark bluish-gray eyes were half lidded.

"Hey, Abelia." He murmured. "What are you doing up at this ungodly hour; unless you're here because you wanted some 'stress relief' from me?"

The broad sword wielder paid no attention to the comment. I just got back from lookout duty, and I heard you've returned, so I wanted to see you before I went to sleep."

"Well, I'm okay, if that's what you're worried about." Sarieth yawned. "Did you have to wake me? Finals are tomorrow and I must be alert and awake for Giradot."

Abelia rolled her eyes. "You'll probably just skip them, you did that the last exam when you got drunk the night before, and was too hung over to leave your room."

"Yeah, yeah. I made that exam up anyway." The young man was too tired to continue this exchange. "Listen, go to sleep. Wake me up early though; I want get something out of the shop for someone."

"Very well." She smiled at him. "I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Sarieth."

"Good night, Abelia." He closed the door, and went back to bed.

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Kalent Spada was a very kind person. Being a Spada, he was respected throughout Dalkia as a blade genius, and he even fixed the queen's sickle after it had started to crack a bit. When he participates in battle, however, his personality changes into someone very dark and ruthless. Despite the fact he was the only fifteen, his skill was equal to higher ranked officers, and Dalkia noticed that immediately. His academy stay was the shortest on record, and he virtually outranked everyone else by exorbitant numbers. As a soldier, he had been known to massacre entire units in less time than it took to find them. The blood covered battlefields were a testimony to his actions.

Nonetheless, the kind Kalent was the one present when he was to meet the queen Aurelia.

"Aurelia is very pleased to finally meet you, Kalent." Roin, head of the army, and Kalent's superior officer, said.

"I'm much honored to meet her too, sir."

The young boy replied, as they made their way down the hallway. The walls had huge paintings of wars from various periods hung from them, along with pictures of the former kings and queens of Dalkia.

Well, the queen is right behind those doors. I'll be outside the palace when you're done." Roin left the young solider by himself. He took a long breath before knocking.

"You can enter." A light voice said from the other side. Kalent opened the door.

The queens room was bigger than any room the young solider had been in his entire life. The windows were huge, various decorations lined the walls, and the bed was bigger than most houses. And there was Aurelia, wearing her green dress, sitting on a chair, drinking tea. Kalent promptly kneeled before her.

"You summoned me, my queen?" He said softly.

"Yes, Kalent. Have a seat over there." The young boy sat down on the chair immediately. "I am quite astonished by how much you grown over the past few years. I remember when you I first met you when you where fourteen and you wanted to fix my sickle for me. Now, you're a powerful force in the military. I am very pleased with you." She smiled a Kalent, causing him to form a slight blush.

"Thank you, my queen." He said softly.

"You're very welcome. Roin and I have discussed this for a while now. How would you like to be apart of a special unit?"

"Special unit? That sounds very interesting but I am happy with my current unit."

"I will also advance you up a rank."

The prospect of a promotion perked his interests. "Alright, I will agree to your proposal."

"Would you like to hear about your team, then?"

Kalent smiled. It wouldn't hurt to have some new people to work with, maybe someone that didn't run away when he was around. "Very much, madam."

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They spent some time going over the new team, the kingdom, and news about their battles with the Halteese. Kalent bid the queen farewell before leaving the castle. He met up with Roin shortly after.

"I got the news. You recommended this, did you?" Kalent asked.

"I think you would do fine with some new teammates, Kalent." Roin answered. "You don't seem to be very happy with your current squad."

"It's not that I'm not happy, it's just the fact that being somewhat more 'experienced' then the rest of my team kinda makes them look bad."

"You don't need to worry about that. Your new squad has people more of your level." Roin gathered his things. "I have to see the queen for a strategy session. You should be leaving tomorrow morning to the new base."

Kalent sighed. Roin's intentions with the queen was so obvious, you could almost see the quotation marks around the words 'strategy session'. Kalent saluted him, before going back to his barracks to gather his equipment.

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There's another chapter up right now, so keep going.


	2. Final Exams

_Shikkoku: __Normal__ disclaimers apply. Namco owns almost everyone in this story._

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_Tsurugi no Kirokusuru_

_By Shikkoku Kiyoshi_

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The next day, Abelia returned to Sarieth's room to wake him up as he said. Opening the door, she found him asleep on his bed, the blanket wrapped tight around him and a content smile was on his face.

Abelia nudged him, trying to wake up the young cadet, but nothing happened.

"Dammit." She cursed. "Are you awake, Sarieth?" But he was more intent on staying nice and comfy in his warm bed. Sighing, she placed her hands on his neck and proceeded to strangle the poor boy, which proved to be way more efficient.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sarieth started to cough.

"Just giving you a nice wake up call, that's all." Abelia smiled at him. Are you ready for today?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." He got off the bed, and noticed that Abelia was already in her armor. You didn't get much sleep, did you?"

"Actually, I decided to get ready early, since unlike you, I show some enthusiasm for learning."

"In that case, show some enthusiasm about getting your ass out of my room while I get ready." He yawned. "I'll see you in a few."

"Alright, Alright." Abelia didn't stay a minute longer, shutting the door behind her.

After getting his equipment, Saires put on his special armor with his family's colors of red and black. He loved his armor, since it had a lot of dignity and history to it, so he wore it with pride. Before he left, however, he grabbed his red scarf. This scarf was special, as Kalent brought it for him before he left for Dalkia two years ago. Sarieth remembered his brother saying to wear it at all times, so if a battle were to break out, Kalent wouldn't get kill him by accident...

"Heh, Kalent is such a joker." Sarieth grinned. "I wonder how he's doing right now..."

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Everything was silent, along a grassy plane next to a dusty road.

Kalent didn't sleep a wink that night, as he was too anxious about his new situation. It wasn't that he didn't like the idea of being assigned to a new team, but what would they think of him? Would they be difficult to work with? Will he have to kill one of them to get their respect? Kalent wasn't very tolerant of annoying people.

So he sat in the grass, while it was still dark, waiting for his ride to appear, while shining his dagger.

"I wonder if when I'll get a chance to fight again." He thought to himself. "I would like to test myself again. A few hundred casualties aren't bad, but the faster this war ends, the sooner I can go home. I'm think I'm starting to become sympathetic to this country."

Kalent leaned back, and ran a hand through his white hair. If he had his way, he wouldn't even be fighting in this war, but there was no use complaining. So he laid himself on the grass, and went to sleep.

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Sarieth marched out of the hallway, carrying his weapons with him. His iron sword was resting on his shoulder while his shield and broadsword hung from parts of his armor. He looked like someone on a mission, while, in fact, he was looking for someone. That someone was standing by her room's door; a dark haired woman about the same age as Sarieth.

She was Rhiona Spada, Sarieth's younger cousin, though many think of her as his sister, since she acts just like him. Initially attending to follow in her father's footsteps, she has become sort of the double of her relative. However, she was a little more aware about what she does.

"YO!" Sarieth greeted her with a punch to her armored shoulder.

"Yo." She replied gently.

"Are you pumped up for the big day today?" Sarieth was _way_ too excited about this war for his own good.

"I wouldn't say pumped', more like scared to death'." Rhiona yawned as she followed her cousin down the hall.

"Don't worry, were the top of our class! It'll be a walk in the park for us."

"I know, but are we exactly_ ready_ to go into war?" The girl asked with a slight uncertainty.

"Hell yeah! There's nothing more exhilarating than the rush of battle!" Sarieth started to punch the air. The best feeling in the world is when you're surrounded by enemy combatants, all your remaining forces are dead, you have no backup, no strategy and you have to fight all of them at once, with only a sword that's so dull it couldn't cut water."

Rhiona shook her head.

They continued till they got to dinner hall. It was empty, as most students typically waited till the last minute before classes to actually eat their food. Rhiona sat down on one of the chairs surrounding the table while Sarieth walked around, as if he was looking for...something.

"Where could it be?" He mused. After a minute, he found a package under one of the tables.

"Bingo!" He picked it up, and ran over to his table and dropped it in front of his cousin with a soft clanging.

"What the hell is that?" Rhiona looked at the long thin box

"It's a surprise." Sarieth grinned. "Don't open it." He slid it into his side of the table. They sat quietly for a while, before Sarieth stroking her cousin's hair to ease whatever anxiety she was feeling. It always calmed her down when he did that, and she was feeling very nervous today. She wasn't very keen on the whole 'Yeah! Let's go to war!' aspect of the academy, but she loved battle. It was Sarieth who helped direct that into the military, and he promised to be with her all the way when they finally graduate. And while her cousin's 'War Kicks Ass!' attitude bothered her a bit, she will follow him nonetheless.

After twenty minutes, another person emerged. Aeneas, Sarieth's best friend for many years, appeared from out of nowhere. Aeneas' father was friends with the Spadas, and thus, the three kids got along very well. Kalent even made the lance Pilum Muralis, which is Aeneas' main weapon.

"Good morning, everybody." He said happily.

"What's so good about it?" Rhiona mumbled. It's exam time."

"Come on, Rhiona. This is going to be great! We're finally getting out of this place.

"Ignore her, Aeneas." Sarieth grinned. She's nervous."

"Oh really? You're the one of the smartest girls in the class. How could you possibly fail something as simple as this?"

"I don't know. I just have this feeling..."

Immediately after that was said, a girl walked out of the corridor. Riese, the girl no one had expected to get so far, walked to Sarieth and sat next to him.

"Good morning, Sarieth." She said.

"Good morning, Riese." He replied.

Sarieth and Riese had known each other four years. Formerly from Halteese, the courts executed her parents for suspicion of betrayal when she was only thirteen, leaving her to wander the country alone till she decided to leave her home and go to Grandall to avoid being forced to join their army. When she got there, Riese realized that the best way to make amends to was to help end the war that had claimed her parents lives.

When she first enlisted, Sarieth helped her to adjust to her new life by helping her with studies and introducing her to all his friends. Despite everything, Riese was a very kind and friendly person, but she had an mean streak at times, and she would often injure her opponents during training.

"How was your trip?" She asked, noting the sour mood that Rhiona was in.

"It was cool. My parents were all on me about making sure I pass today's exam." Sarieth scratched his head. "But while I was there, got you something." He took out the box from earlier. "Since I broke your last set the other day, I decided to get them redone."

Riese silently took the box in her hands and opened it. It was a set of wave swords, which Riese was a master of using. They were curved but strong and very sleek silver blades with blue steel handles decorated with the Spada red and black. She looked at them with absolute awe.

"I don't know what to say..." Riese could only look at Sarieth, who smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "Thank you, Sarieth."

"It's no problem." He responded. "We can't have you fighting with dull blades, now can we?"

Rhiona, who was seemingly in a foul mood, brightened up at the sight of the mess hall cooks. "Well, look here, Looks like breakfast is starting."

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Kalent was still sitting when the sun came up, and he was slightly irritated. Lying on the grass for 4 hours straight wasn't his idea of a promotion.

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Abelia was the last to arrive. She sat on the table and began to eat without speaking a word. Sarieth was worried, since usually she wouldn't eat this early with them. But before he could ask what was wrong, Abelia addressed the table.

"Since I am the student with the highest grade, I'll get to skip the first part of the exam." She gave a smile while everybody else started to grumble.

"Teacher's pet." Sarieth muttered, before getting whacked on the head by Abelia's shield.

"Maybe if you spent more time in class and less time sleeping in the back of the library, you would rank higher too."

"Whatever." He frowned, and continued to eat. "Just make sure that when you pass the test and get ranked way above us that you don't become a total jerkass."

"I can't make any promises, Sarieth." Abelia gave an evil smirk. "I might need somebody to carry me from place to place. Your strong body would do perfectly."

Sarieth groaned and got up, Rhiona and the others were following soon after. Abelia shrugged and continued eating.

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Kalent was in a dead sleep by time a hay-wagon pulled up. Relaxing on the back was a red headed young girl. She was wearing a black noble's outfit with heavy brown boots. Resting beside her was a large lance.

"Damn, that was a long trip." She groaned while getting off. "I surely hope that boy is worth it."

Kalent, with his fighter's instinct, woke up at the sound of crushing grass, and was about to attack when he noticed who was there. The girl didn't flinch at the sight of a dagger pointing ominously at her heart.

"I'm sorry." He retraced the blade back into his holster. "Are you the person who is supposed to pick me up?"

The girl smiled. This boy looked like he was definitely worth the long trip. "Yes I am. You are Kalent, aren't you?"

"Kalent Spada. Yes, that's me."

"My name is Lupi." She bowed her head slightly. It's very nice to meet the man they all been talking about."

Kalent smiled. It was always flattering for someone to praise him. "Thanks."

"Well, shall we get going? There are people who await your arrival." Lupi took his hand and drug him to the back of the wagon, before it started to move slowly.

"How long will this take?" The young solider asked.

Lupi smiled and shrugged. "Who knows? I can only tell you it's going to take a while."

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After breakfast, Abelia had decided drug Sarieth into her room for a little advice before the big test. It was a little unnerving, being in her room before only twice before. The room's owner was sitting on her chair, lecturing him while he sat on the bed trying hard to keep from blanking out.

"Listen," Abelia said in a stern, but gentle voice. "I know for a fact that General Giradot likes you a lot, but he's not going to be so lenient since this is the final exam. Don't think that your family's reputation will mean you can just coast your way into the military."

Sarieth nodded. He knew she meant well, but these lectures were stupid and long. He had to get to class, and sitting here wouldn't help him anymore than just going unprepared.

"I want you to know that you have my full support. You are my friend and confidant, and I want you to have the best chance of passing possible." The young cadet gave him a piece of paper. "Take this and don't open it till you get to somewhere that no one could see you. I'm sure this will give you some motivation to pass."

Sarieth smirked. "Thank you, Abelia. I'll make sure to do that."

"Good. Now we must be going, no?" Abelia said before the two got up and left. They met up with Rhiona and the others at the entrance.

"Okay!" Sarieth cheered. "It's coming near the end of our stay here, so here's the deal: We have been granted this opportunity by good graces, and it'll be absolutely terrible if we all choked now. So let's get in there and show them what we're made of." He stuck out his fist.

"You're a crazy fool, but I agree." Rhiona touched fist with her cousin.

"Let's do this!" Aeneas did the same.

"I'm with you all to the end." Riese smiled as she joined the pile.

"May you have the best luck in the world." Abelia said.

"I don't need luck." Sarieth winked. "Just make sure you're ready for the second exam."

The rest of the group walked to the main building, while Sarieth stood were he is for a second.

"Kalent..." He though as he clutched the end of his scarf.

"I'll find you. Even if I have to wipe Dalkia and its people out of existence."

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Shikkoku: Looks like it's going to be one heck of an exam, isn't it? I decided to post two chapters right now instead of one, so you'll have more of a feel for how the story will be. Kalent's situation with Dalkia will be explained soon.

Next Chapter: Sarieth takes his exams and Kalent meets the Klessirpemdo. How will Kalent take being stationed with a bunch of girls? It should be obvious.

Until next time.


	3. Arrival of the Moon

Dislcamer: Namco owns Soul Calibur. Really, do you think I could do a better job than them? If I had it my way, half the cast would be nothing but ninjas. :P

I looked up and down this chapter, and I'm quite pleased with how it looks, but if you think different, please review...

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Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

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"Yo, Lupi…" Kalent asked the young girl across from him.

"Yeah?"

"They might not listen to you, but next time, ask your superiors for a more efficient means of transportation."

Lupi and Kalent had been riding the hay wagon for hours, and while Lupi was mostly already irritated, Kalent was only uncomfortable. While straw was good for sitting, it wasn't good for long term use, and his butt was paying the price for it.

"Hm. That's a nice lance you got there, Lupi."

"Thank you, Kalent." Lupi gave him a warm smile. "It's been with me for a while. It's starting to crack, though." She frowned at her weapon. Kalent got up and looked at it.

"Well, that's nothing I can't fix." He stated. "As soon as I get a chance, I'll work on that."

"That's very nice of you, but at the rate we're moving, we won't be arriving till late at night." Lupi replied, and Kalent proceeded to groan.

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Girardot was greeted by his students warmly. He smiled at all his hardworking pupils, and noticed that Sarieth and Rhiona were present, next to each other as usual. The general had always kept his eyes on the young Spada boy. There was a lot of potential in him, and he wasn't one to let it go to waste. But he knew that his strengths relied on teamwork with his cousin. Most of the time, in battle simulations, the duo nearly always passed with flying colors, but that was due to the fact that the two together had higher weapon skills than everybody else. Girardot wanted to see for himself how the Spada duo worked separately

"At ease." He said gently. Everybody relaxed their stance, and Giradot continued. "It has been a long tenure throughout your stay at the academy. I'm proud to say that my baby birds are finally ready to see themselves out of my nest."

Though they didn't look it, everybody groaned inward at the last part.

"I'm am impressed with this squad of cadets. My past students seemed to spend more time with the various female students than studying or going to class. But you are very dedicated to your country. I'm sure that most of you will pass and become great soldier. But still, you have to pass this test before we can see to that."

"Okay. Now, before we get to the hard part of your final exam, I want you to show me what you would do on a normal, everyday tactical test." Girardot announced. "In order to test you, we first have to see your strategies and normal fighting styles. Also, it'll give you a little chance to get some momentum going without straining you from the get-go. I would prefer it if you didn't kill each other, but that cannot be avoided." He took a glance at the two Spadas. "Sarieth and Rhiona, since you are pretty much pass every time I put you two together, I won't allow you to pair up anymore."

Sarieth held his breath and counted to ten inside his head. This wasn't fair to him, but what is he going to do? He has been here too long to get himself kicked out for yelling at his teacher now. Besides, this might prove useful...

Noting that Sarieth didn't throw a fit and stomp out of the room in rage, he continued, "Sarieth, you will be paired up with Aeneas. Rhiona will be paired up with Riese. The rest of you can choose as normal. Take ten minutes to choose, and meet me in the practice field afterward for your assignments. You may proceed." He waved his hand and walked out.

Sarieth adjusted the scarf around his neck, and made his way to Aeneas.

"Well, old pal, it's you and me." He said. "Since I'm the next highest scorer in the entire school, we'll have to go first."

"Well, it's not so bad. We'll be done in no time right?" Aeneas patted his friend's back. "Rhiona's going to be okay with Riese, so just focus on getting through the first test, okay?"

"Fine, fine." Sarieth sighed, picked up his iron sword, and they strolled along to the practice field.

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The sun was starting to beat down, and if Kalent had been wearing his armor, he would have been cooking himself silly. He was starting to lose his patience with this trip, and the fact that the driver stopped to feed his horses twice wasn't helping. And now he was going into an outhouse.

"What in the hell is this guy doing?" The Spada said slowly. Lupi was asleep across from him, and at the pace they were going, it was going to be pitch black by time they got to their destination. But that was going to change...

Kalent got up and took out a small rope. He wrapped it around the door of the outhouse before tying it shut. The poor driver was locked inside, but he wasn't aware of it. Kalent took his seat in front of the horses, and was ready to leave when he realized that he forgot to thank the man for his work. So he took out a round object out of his pocket, and rolled it next to the door. In a matter of seconds, the object started to catch on fire, and since the outhouse was wood, you could probably guess what happened next.

"Hope you like it, you punk." He gave an evil smile before the horses led him and Lupi off to their meeting.

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"Okay, Sarieth and Aeneas, your assignment is for you to reach the main stronghold. Try to do it as fast as possible, but don't work yourself too hard." Girardot noted. "This is mainly to see your skills when it comes to teamwork. None of this will affect your place on the exams, but don't think you can just breeze through it without any effort. When you're done, meet me here and I'll tell you what you need to improve for the first real test."

Sarieth and Aeneas saluted and went to their stronghold to plan. Sort of.

"What do you think we should do?" Aeneas asked. Sarieth just shrugged.

"First, go look out to see if anyone is trying to get a head start before us." He ordered. "If not, then we'll start our attack."

Aeneas nodded and went to the look out post. Making sure that no one was there, he took out the note that Abelia gave him, and finally took the time to read.

_Sarieth, I believe in you. I know that you tend to view me sometimes as a overconfident girl who constantly shows everybody up. You know that I tend to view you sometimes as lazy person who doesn't seem to take this academy seriously enough. But we both know that it's not really the case. I care for you deeply, and I'm hoping you pass this test._

_Your Friend,_

_Abelia._

Sarieth stared at the paper and sighed deeply; She was right. Even though they fought often, they were also close friends, and Sarieth too cared about Abelia. He But he was in the middle of an exam, so he couldn't dwell on that right now. Aeneas came back reporting that no one was out, so it looked like he'd have to flush them out of their little protective shelters.

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The whole thing was very one-sided.

They strode out of their base and when in different directions. Aeneas went to his stronghold and fortified it, while Sarieth went to the first enemy stronghold. It wasn't very well protected, and he went in without trouble. There was one person there, but he was currently asleep on the post above him. Sarieth carefully picked him up, and dumped him off the post and into the dirt. After fortifying their base, he left to see Aeneas' condition in his own stronghold.

The enemy had decided to attack him when he was alone, so the sight of Sarieth caused them to panic. The pair of Sarieth and Aeneas was too much for them and they retreated to their second stronghold, with them on their tail. Unfortunately, it took them only seconds to tear that one to shreds. Then it was to the main stronghold. Most of the time was spent on the two guards, but they were severely beaten and dumped into the moat. They took their time in entering (as it wasn't very well protected), and ambushed the remaining troops, who was severely beaten as well.

Girardot was pleased with the result, but...

"The problem with that is the fact that you're used to people with very low levels of skill in these tests." He told them afterwards. "Sarieth, your knowledge of weapons turns most battles into your favor. Real battles will not as easy as you and Rhiona going around, administering savage beatings to every opponent you see, and strolling in bases without resistance. Don't worry, though, as the first test will be against your fellow classmates, so it won't be as simple."

Sarieth and Aeneas saluted and went back inside to wait for the others, though Sarieth was trying to figure out how to get through the next test.

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Kalent had finally arrived at his destination. It was a large house, almost as large as the queen's castle, and he nearly broke his neck trying to look up.

"Do you like it?" Lupi asked. "It's your new home, you know."

"I know, but I didn't..." Kalent lost his voice for a second. "I didn't know you were this well off."

"Well, don't just stand there, silly. Go on in." The brown haired girl gave a small smile before shoving the white haired boy in the house.

It was just as pretty inside as it was outside. Gold lined the ceiling, various crystals were strewn across the walls, and the floor was shiny marble. It even smelled good.

Kalent took a glance around his new abode, and noticed three more females sitting around a table, playing a game of chess. One was a blue haired girl, wearing a long blue dress with some kind of red ribbon around the waist. Across the board was a light green haired girl, wearing some kind blue battle outfit, grey gloves and dark pants. The girl who was between them, watching the whole thing, wore what looked like a pirate's outfit. Her hair was pulled into short pigtails, and she wore some kind of armor on her chest. The young boy's eye twitched for a moment. When Aurelia asked him to join this force, he didn't know it was an _all-girl_ force. Not that he was complaining, mind you, but he felt a little out of place. It was kind of like the feeling a man gets when you walk into a women's clothing store without a _actual_ woman with you.

Lupi gave a loud whistle, scaring the others out of their wits.

"Guys," she said sternly, "I want you to meet Kalent Spada, our new 'friend'. He'll be staying here, so try to get used to him."

The other girls gave a good look at the silver haired boy, which caused him to get nervous. "Why are they looking at me like that?" He thought. "I'm stuck in a house with 4 very cute girls. I bet no one else has been stuck in this situation before." The girls smiled at him, and he calmed a bit.

"Hello," the blue haired girl said. "My name is Heal-Do, the water of origin."

"My name is Elua, and I'm the wind of creation." The green haired girl added.

"And I'm Aege, the Earth of Foundation." The last girl said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kalent." Heal-Do bowed.

"Same here." The boy replied, feeling somewhat relieved that they didn't make fun of him.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" A young girl's voice asked. Looking at the top of the steps, he saw a light pink haired girl. She wore a red shirt on her nimble frame, with silver gauntlets on her arms. Long black boots covered most of her black pants.

In a display of agility, she jumped on the railing, sliding down the whole way before leaping off, spinning in the air, and landing in front of Kalent. The other girls clapped, while Kalent began to wonder if this was some kind of evil joke by the queen.

"My name is Luna." She gave a slight bow. "It's very nice to finally meet the person who has been causing so much commotion."

"I'm much honored to meet you too, Luna." He smiled, but inside, he thought, "Make that _five_ cute girls..."

----------

Sarieth met up with Riese and Rhiona a while later, and they sat under the tree while waiting for the rest of the students to finish their tactical training. They could see them running around, acting like chickens with their heads cut off, slashing anything that moves. Some were asleep on the lookout posts of the strongholds, others were arguing about who's strategy are better, and some were just going the whole thing by ear.

Sarieth was more concerned about the news of who he and Aeneas were facing for the next exam: Abelia. Needless to say, they were not very excited about facing the smartest cadet in the whole damn country.

"Well, we're screwed." Aeneas said, before his friend bopped him on the head.

"No we're not." Sarieth said firmly. "We can beat her; we just have to use some of that strategy that General Girardot is always yakking about." He noticed that Rhiona was quiet, which wasn't unusual for her, but bothered him anyway. "What's wrong with you, Rhiona?"

"I have to go on Abelia's squad." She sighed. "So I'll eventually have to fight you guys."

"Well, you could always lose to us on purpose..." Aeneas replied, but the look she gave him caused the young man to reconsider.

"I wouldn't worry about that, sweetheart." Sarieth smiled. "Passing this test is based on how well you plan things, not if you win or lose. Don't get too distracted or you will end up getting hurt. We'll be with Riese in this exam anyway, so we'll try to avoid you."

Rhiona lightened up a bit. "I guess you're right. But still..." she paused for a bit. "I think I'll go start planning with Abelia now. Good luck, my friends." She ran off.

Riese had observed the whole thing with her normal neutrality. She had a very successful first test with Rhiona, so she was a little upset with her departure. But Sarieth and Aeneas where her team, so it wouldn't be hopeless. But still...

"You know, you are my closest friends..." Riese spoke. "But if we don't win this battle, I will be happy to return you two to your families in coffins." She gave an evil smile, while the two boys gulped nervously.

"Don't worry. I won't fail any of you." Sarieth replied, trying his best not to think about what she would do to them if he did.

Girardot approached them, and they all stood at attention.

"Alright, you three." He smiled. "It's time for the next exam. It'll take place in the same field, so it won't take you long to think up a plan for action."

The three cadets saluted before running off to the strong hold. When they arrived there, they could already hear Abelia's squad shifting positions. Sarieth opted for a katana instead of the usual iron sword, while his squad members readied their respective weapons.

"Is everyone ready?" Sarieth asked. He knew what this exam meant. This was his first opportunity to lead his own squad. If he did well, he could be highly considered to lead a real team into a real battlefield, with real enemies. He knew that Aeneas and Riese had his back till the very end, and Abelia's note provided him with more incentive to win (not that he really needed it).

They left their main stronghold, and observed the opposing troops. Of the 4 strongholds, three were fortified, two had at least one cadet occupying it, and one was completely empty.

"Aeneas, secure that empty stronghold over there." Sarieth ordered. "Riese and I will hijack the other one."

Aeneas ran off to their lone stronghold while the other two started their mission.

When they arrived at the stronghold, Riese and Sarieth immediately started to wear down the barriers by striking them repeatedly. After the walls finally collapsed, they found themselves against two girls with rapiers.

"Uh, hello there." Sarieth smiled. Riese walked in front of him, and pointed at the two girls with one of her waved blades.

"I suggest you both quit while you're still able to walk out on you own free will." She said menacingly. Sarieth just sighed and unsheathed his sword. Riese can be violent at times, but that what he liked about her.

"They are our fellow cadets, Riese." Sarieth told her, "please don't kill them."

The two girls bowed respectfully and started to advance. Riese ran towards them, arms crossed in her usual stance, and slashed the first one several times, before throwing her against the stone wall hard enough that it cracked a bit. Sarieth was more merciful, using several carefully aimed attacks, before disarming the second girl. He took his hand to help her up, only for Riese to stomp on her shoulder. The poor girl screamed in pain as she held her newly broken shoulder.

"Why did you do that?" Sarieth asked. Riese just shrugged and went to fortify their new stronghold. Sighing, Sarieth went to tend to the injured girls.

This was going to be a long exam.

----------

Even though it was the middle of the day, Kalent went to sleep the minute Lupi showed him to his room. He wished that he didn't spend all night packing, but he had a lot of things to do before he left.

After two hours, he woke up to the sound of his supply of weapons spilling off the bed and clattering on the floor. Kalent yawned and re-adjusted them back into his bag. Rather than going back to sleep, he sat on the bed and thought about his current situation…

About a year ago, Kalent was assigned by the Grandall government to go into Dalkia in order to gain information on a recent surge in new arms. He was happy to serve his country, and made his way into the warring country with no problem. Unfortunately, about a few days later, he had gotten into a confrontation with several spies from Halteese who believed that he was trying to give information to Grandall in order for them to take advantage of the warring nations and conquer them both. Kalent, seeing as they were mostly right about what he was doing, decided to kill the spies before they gave away the fact that his family was devoted to Grandall. And he did. Quite brutally.

When the Dalkia soldiers caught wind of the incident, and of Kalent's family, they immediately requested him to join the military. Knowing that going back to Grandall will cause a conflict which the country were not prepared to answer yet, he hesitantly agreed, as long as he didn't have to fight his friends, he was all right. Months passed by, and Kalent was known for being a respectful, if not a little violent solider. Kalent assumed that if Halteese was destroyed, Grandall would have an easier time finding him by focusing on fighting Dalkia alone.

He also knew that he was slowly becoming numb to the daily atrocities of war, as killing slowly becoming nothing more than a job. To him, every dead body is a stepping stone closer to his_ real_ country and his_ real _family. But until then, he will fight.

----------

Shikkoku: Uh-oh! Looks like Kalent is stuck in a rut. A rather big one at that. Will Sarieth save his brother from the horrible fate of staying with a big house with five beautiful women?

Next Chapter: While Kalent gets used to his new surroundings, Sarieth and co. continue their way to Abelia.

Until next time.


	4. The Second Test of Sarieth Spada

Shikkoku: Namco owns Soul Calibur and it's corresponding game modes and characters. I don't own anything but the Spadas.

_----------_

Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

_----------_

After a moments rest, Sarieth and Riese ran to the next post, where Aeneas was waiting, a fallen solider at his feet.

"You don't waste time, do you?" He asked. "We got another base right up ahead, so we should get going."

A half hour later, they were at the second strong hold. Using Aeneas' lance as a battering ram, they easily stormed in. The sole occupant was a man with a sword and shield. Sarieth used his long iron sword as a barrier as he was assaulted with the man's attacks. Obviously he wasn't going to go down without a fight. And that damn shield isn't helping him counter his barrage either. So Sarieth had to get rough.

Knocking his opponent's shield off his hand with the hilt of his weapon, Sarieth grabbed it off the ground. He tossed it back to its owner, who brought it up to his face to see if it had been damaged.

"You let your guard down!" CRACK!

Sarieth kicked the shield into the man's face, knocking him out instantly. Riese fell to the floor laughing, and Aeneas shook his head. The cadets stripped the unconscious man of his weapons and climbed up the lookout to check their progress and take a quick break.

"Sarieth, something is bugging me." Riese said after drinking from her flask of water...

"What's up?" Sarieth asked.

"Even if we do win this battle, what do you think will the last exam be?"

"I have no idea." He shrugged. "But we should focus on the current one for now, I think Abelia has been toying with us for a while, but now that we're getting closer to her stronghold, we might be greeted with tougher forces. Keep your guard up, as they probably expect us to be relaxed due to the pretty lousy fighters she sent originally."

Aeneas and Riese proceeded to fortify their stronghold and leave, starting the long path to Abelia's main station.

After thirty minutes, the teams were confronted by some forces blocking their path. As Sarieth predicted, they were _way_ tougher than past opponents. Riese was blocking an attack when a sword hit her just below her ribs. Wincing in pain but not fazed, she immediately cut up said attacker savagely. Sarieth noticed it and asked her to retreat, but the blue-haired girl kept going. Aeneas had no troublemaking a clearing with his lance, but the Spada had quite a time with the constant shields he faced up against. Feeling cornered, he decided to throw his sword in the air. Most of the soldiers stopped in confusion and looked up, and Sarieth unsheathed his katana and proceeded to render an entire group of high level soldiers unconscious in a second. Grabbing his sword out of the ground, he finished a few more before they were all comatose on the ground.

Sarieth went to Riese, who was clutching her wound, and took out his medical kit he kept in his armor. Taking out a bandage patch, he covered her wound. Riese laughed weakly.

"I guess I let myself get too relaxed." She said softly, slowly rising to her feet.

"Nonsense." Sarieth replied, "You were great. But I need you to get to your stronghold and rest now. We'll be back as soon as we win this thing."

Riese wanted to object, but instead she saluted her friends and went on her way back to the stronghold they left forty minutes ago. Sarieth and Aeneas continued on their way, hoping for no more obstructions in their path.

----------

Kalent left the confides of his room and decided to take a self guided tour through this extremely large house. Unbeknownst to him, The leader of the Klessirpemdo had a surprise waiting at the other end of the hall…

Luna had placed a bucket full of water on top of the door leading into the main room, and hid behind one of the couches, laughing evilly to herself.

"I think it's time for a little initiation test." Luna thought. "We'll see if he's good enough to stay here."

"That's the oldest trick in the book and you know it, Luna."

Kalent was right behind her. Luna jumped from the couch and stared at him in amazement.

"How did you know?" She said, trying to sound like she didn't care.

"The other girls told me you did the old bucket trick to all of them when they joined you." Kalent walked past her. "Good try, though."

Luna grumbled for a moment, but decided to follow the young boy. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You are a top official in the Dalkia army, after all."

"I wouldn't call myself a top official. I'm more of a high ranking cadet." Kalent corrected. "It only seems that way because I have a good relations with Roin and Queen Aurelia. You're more fitting of that rank."

"Why, thank you." Luna smiled. "But I do commend your skill."

Luna was about to leave when she remembered something.

"I just want you to know one thing when we go into battle again."

"Yes?"

"Don't get in my way."

Luna gave him a look that made Kalent slightly edgy. "If you can do that one thing, we can get along great." She patted him on the shoulder and walked away.

Kalent stood there for a moment, grasping what Luna asked of him, before shrugging. He picked up the bucket from the door and placed it where Luna had left at before running away.

----------

After another forty-seven minutes, they finally reached the stronghold of Abelia Schillfelt. It was too bad they were exhausted from the long battle, but they were too close to just drop their weapons and surrender. So they started their attack on the doors. Slowly but surely, they managed to batter their way in.

"STOP!!!" Sarieth and Aeneas heard Rhiona scream. She was running towards them through them, intent on stopping whatever they were about.

Just when she got within striking distance, however, she managed to trip on her feet and fall face first right in front of them.

Sarieth had the sinking feeling that he was putting more effort into this exam than what the other team was giving. He helped his cousin up.

Riona looked embarrassed, but got back up and readied herself for battle.

"I guess this just isn't your day, is it?" Aeneas laughed. Riona charged at him and attacked.

Sarieth laughed to himself and used the distraction to sneak into the stronghold. He resisted the urge to run to Abelia and start fighting her, instead opting to remember the day they met as he slowly walked towards the final battle…

----------

_Giradot watched as Abelia sparred against another cadet in the training fields._

"_She's exactly like her father." He said to himself. "She's going to be strong one day. I can just feel it."_

"_She's something all right." A voice grunted from above. Giradot looked up to see a brown haired teen wearing black armor sitting on top one of the trees. Next to him was a younger boy with white hair._

"_That girl is pretty cute for someone who is studying to be a soldier." The older boy said. "But I doubt that she could handle it."_

"_And just who are you?" Giradot asked._

"_Sarieth Spada." He jumped from the tree, and landing perfectly next to the general. "I'm here to enroll in the army. That boy up there is my brother, Kalent." The white haired boy just smiled from his spot at the tree._

"_So you're the heir to the Spada's fortune that everybody is talking about. Well, if you intend on joining the academy, you have to be willing to go above and beyond our expectations."_

"_You don't have to worry about that. I'm in this to the end." Sarieth grinned. "Kalent, lets make our presence known to the girl over there."_

_Kalent jumped out of the tree and they made their way to Abelia._

"_Are you Abelia Schillfelt?" Sarieth asked._

"_Yes I am." She bowed a bit. "Who might you be?"_

"_Sarieth Spada. And this is my brother, Kalent."_

"_I see. So you're the rich punk whose parents forced to join the military." Abelia smirked._

_Sarieth frowned. "I was the one who CHOSE to be in the military. And just because I'm rich doesn't make me a punk."_

_Abelia took out her sword. "If your so willing to fight then, how about sparring with me?"_

"_I wasn't really expecting a fight…" Sarieth took out a sword that was hidden in his clothes. "But I guess I could humor you a bit."_

"_Sarieth, don't do anything that will get you kicked out of here already." Kalent said as he walked back next to Giradot and watched as the two students clashed swords._

"_So, Kalent." Giradot said. "Are you planning to join the military too?"_

"_I'm too young to join the army." Kalent responded. "Besides, I don't really enjoy the idea of fighting in a war. I'm just here to support my brother."_

_Sarieth ducked a blow to the head. "Your pretty good, that is, for someone who uses a blade like that."_

"_What's wrong with my sword?" Abelia frowned._

"_It's so fragile, it's like your hitting me with a sword made of glass."_

"_Is that so? Well, I have never lost a match with this 'glass sword', so that shows you how much you..."_

"_Look at your blade."_

_Abelia stopped fighting and looked at the edge of her sword, Eternal Rest. It had a several long cracks from when it hit Sarieth's sword. Abelia looked at it in shock._

"_How could it crack? It's way more thicker than your thin katana."_

"_The crack in the sword proves that the metal is impure, and not strong enough to last for more than a few major battles." Sarieth stated. "If you plan on fighting a battle, that sword is worthless trash. You might as well fight our attackers off with a fork."_

_Sarieth was about to call off the match when Abelia tackled him to the ground and proceeded to beat him senseless. After what seemed to be an eternity, Kalent rushed to aid his brother._

"_Stop it." Kalent ordered. "You're acting like a child."_

"_Leave me alone!" Abelia pushed him out of the way, picked up her sword and shield and ran off._

_Sarieth got back up, and he was three notches above pissed. "YEAH YOU BETTER RUN YOU PRISSY LITTLE BITCH!" He wiped his mouth. "Did you see that, Kalent? She got mad and tried to ruin my handsome face!"_

"_Sarieth, you need to calm down." His brother said. "I suppose you don't understand it, but I happen to know that sword you _were_ talking about was given to her by her father."_

"_So?"_

"_Her_ **dead**_ father."_

_Sarieth paused for a moment. "Shit. I guess I know now why she went berserk." Sighing he went to find her._

_Looking high and low, he searched throughout the academy, but it was a big place, and he was starting to get tired, so he decided to rest at the library, and that's when he saw her, sobbing in her arms on one of the tables. Sarieth slowly sat next to her and she looked up at him, tears still running down her face._

"_I'm sorry, Abelia." The Spada heir apologized. "Kalent told me about the deal with the sword. I had no idea it belonged to your father."_

_Abelia just sniffled._

"_You know," Sarieth continued. "When I was fourteen and Kalent was only ten, my uncle died during a small skirmish in another country. My aunt gave this breastplate to me for my eleventh birthday, and said that it was only natural that the heir gets ownership of it. As I looked at it, and remembered what my uncle did, it occurred to me that my uncle could have just sat on his ass and used his status to stay out of combat, but instead chose to fight for this country. So I decided that I would prove to everybody that the Spadas are not above the country of Grandall, but apart of it."_

_Abelia wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I'm so sorry." She said quietly. "I was just so frustrated at your attitude, and then what you said about my father's sword being worthless trash…"_

"_Yeah, that was a little much. But I have an idea that will make everything better."_

"_What is that?"_

"_Give me your sword."_

"_What?!" Abelia held her sword possessively. "I'm not giving it to you to throw in the trash!"_

"_I'm not going to throw it in the trash. Just trust me. I'll have it back to you by tomorrow."_

"_Promise?"_

"_Promise." Sarieth smiled before leaving the library. He met Kalent, who was sleeping, outside the building, so he kicked him._

"_OW! What is it?!"_

"_Wake up, we're going back to the compound. There's something we need to do."_

_----------_

_The next day, Sarieth rushed to find Abelia in the practice yard, feeling a little uneasy without her sword._

"_Hey Abelia!" he said, getting the girl's attention. "I got your sword here."_

"_Thanks. I wonder what you did with it." She unwrapped the sword from the cloth and nearly dropped it in surprise. The cracks were gone, and while the sword looked the same, something felt different._

"_I had the sword strengthened with our high quality metal. It can cut through traditional armor, it won't crack easily, and it has a secret Spada formula that makes blood run off it like rainwater." Sarieth grinned. "So, how do you like it?"_

_Abelia just looked at him, before running up to Sarieth and hugging him._

"_It's perfect! Thank you!" She said._

"_I'm glad you like it. So now that all's forgiven, do you think we could be friends?"_

_Abelia beamed. "Of course we can."_

"_That's good. Now let's get going, there's some people I want you to meet."_

_----------_

"I can't believe that was three years ago…" Sarieth said as he quickened his pace. "And here we are, about to graduate, and getting ready to go to battle against each other again." He started to run, knowing full well what was waiting for him.

----------

Lupi, Heal-Do, Aege and Elua were eating dinner when Luna stomped in. She was soaking wet, and was incredibly ticked off.

"Where is Kalent?" She said slowly and maliciously.

"He said he'll be down here in a moment." Lupi looked at her. "What happened to you?"

Before Luna could start throwing a fit, Kalent entered the room. Upon noticing his superior officer wet and angry, he let out a chuckle.

Five seconds later, he had a bucket thrown at his face.

----------

Sarieth finally reached the center of the stronghold, but now he had to go up a bunch of steps to the top where Abelia was. When he got to the top, the female cadet was looking over the battlefield. Grinning, Sarieth quietly walked behind her, getting his mouth as close to her ear as he could without disturbing her.

"BOOM!"

Abelia nearly fell off the roof. "Sarieth! You scared me, Dammit!"

Sarieth laughed a bit before stepping back and grabbing his sword. "So, I guess this is the clincher."

"Yes, It's been a while since you and I fought." Abelia took out her sword and shield and gave a evil smile. "I want you to fight me with all you might, as I will."

"I promise you I will."

They stood there for a moment, getting their bodies ready for battle.

"Let's settle this." Abelia shifted into her fighting stance.

"I'll show you my true strength." Sarieth did the same thing before swinging his sword at her. Abelia ducked quickly and brought the hilt of Eternal Rest into the stomach of the Spada, who quickly backed off.

"Heh. You gotten strong." Sarieth panted. Adjusting the grip of his sword, he attempted to sidestep her but she swung her shield under his feet. He regained his composure and swung his sword downwards, hitting Abelia in the shoulder. Sarieth spun around while holding his sword low, tripping her to the ground.

"I could say the same thing to you." Abelia rolled into a crouch before kicking Sarieth in the face. As he stumbled back, she proceeded to let loose a series of stabs towards him, causing him to fall back even more. He finally parried one of the strikes, causing Abelia to lose her focus and, using the flat end of the blade, Sarieth knocked her onto the wall. After she turned around to face him, he shoved the hilt of the sword into her gut. Thankfully, the armor lessened the impact, but it still hurt quite a bit.

Looking up at Sarieth's face, Abelia noticed something. He had a smile on his face. And not the usual arrogant 'I'm better than everybody' grin he had on a normal basis, but an excited, gleeful smile that she never saw before. It was like he was having fun with this. Abelia knew that he liked fighting, but this look…he was focused more than he ever was in his life, and with what was at stake, both militarily and personally, she could not blame him a bit.

Sarieth slammed his sword into her side, and kicked her in the stomach. Abelia nearly dropped her sword from the pain, but she put it in the back of her mind. She did a quick spinning kick that hit Sarieth in the shoulder, but he didn't seem to feel it that much, as he jumped in the air and crashed both feet into her chest, sending her to the wall. She fell to the ground, conscious but in pain. She barely gotten to her feet when Sarieth swung his sword directly at her, the force of the impact left a huge gash in her chestplate, chipped her shield, and sent her own sword flying to the ground. Not to mention that it really hurt. She had no other choice.

"I…surrender." Abelia choked out, tears starting to form in her eyes. She had failed.

Sarieth helped her up, and recovered her sword for her. Taking out a folded piece of cloth, he took down Abelia's flag and raised his own, giving the signal to Aeneas that they have passed the test.

"Yeah!" Aeneas shouted, raising his lance in victory. Riona, who was close to beating him, sighed and fell down to the ground in relief. Sarieth walked to the edge of the roof and gave Aeneas a thumbs up. Noticing Abelia still demoralized from her loss, he walked towards her.

Abelia didn't want to look at him. Sarieth, the boy who seemed to carefree for his own good, who skipped classes, broke rules and disrespected commanders, passed the test before she did. That boy lifted her chin so that her eyes meet his.

"Abelia." He said softly. "How could you be upset when you was the one who wanted me to pass this test?"

"I didn't know…I didn't know I had to go against you." She wiped her eyes.

"I understand. Listen, even if you kicked my ass from here to Parousia, I've would have been happy because I got to fight you. You'll graduate no matter what happens here, okay? I believe in you as you believed in me. We'll end this war together."

Sarieth helped Abelia up before she gave him a massive hug. Looking up at the darkening sky, he could only think about what was waiting for him the next day.

----------

Kalent walked into his room, face still somewhat tingling from having a metal object hit it at high speeds. He fell on his bed, barely able to take his shoes, shirt and vest off. As he watched the sun go down, he thought about his brother. Knowing him, he probably was taking his final test tomorrow. Grinning, he remembered the scarf that he had brought him. Sarieth nearly strangled himself to death trying to put it on, but when he did, it looked like it was made just for him.

He quickly rid himself of such thoughts, however, not wanting to get homesick. Kalent decided that if anything, this new unit wouldn't be as bad as he initially believed. Using his remaining strength to pull the covers over him, he fell asleep, dreaming about the normal life he wanted.

----------

Shikkoku: I'm usually skeptical when I submit a chapter, but I really liked the way this turned out. Everything looks great, and I'm happy.

_Notes:  
_

_Thanks to __Mark Ol' Henry for giving me my first (and only) review EVER._

_I'll post Sarieth's formula next chapter, Riona in chapter 6 and Kalent's in chapter 7._

_Sarieth's main weapon is a iron sword, but it's a little narrower than what they have in the game. His secondary weapon is a Katana. He has techniques that involve both of them at the same time._

Next Chapter: Now that Sarieth's team have defeated Abelia, they're on easy street. Or they will be once they beat Giradot. And Kalent gets some unsettling news about Dalkia's next move.

Until Next Time.


	5. One Road Ends, Another Begins

Shikkoku Kiyoshi does not own Soul Calibur. If he did, the first game would probably_ still _be in production today, much less SCIV.

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Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

----------

While Kalent was dreaming in Dalkia, Sarieth laid on his bed, wide awake.

After his successful battle with Abelia, he had opted to go back to quarters and rest, rather than celebrate with the others.

Not that he didn't want to, but Sarieth was just too exhausted, mentally and psychically, to go wild tonight.

The Spada heir stared at the ceiling, moonlight providing the room with a bluish glow, some of which illuminated off his swords. Sighing, Sarieth got off the bed and started to pace the room.

Despite what he said earlier about the final exam, he was getting anxious. Nobody knew what crazy shit Girardot was planning right now. Sarieth could virtually hear him laughing evilly somewhere now as he finished up the last details of the final exam. It was going to be something bad, he could just feel it.

Sighing to himself, Sarieth laid back down on the bed. There was no use getting bent out of shape this time of night. After a few minutes, he finally managed to go to sleep, hoping the best, and expecting the worst.

That moment of relaxation lasted only about four hours.

By that time, whatever sleeplessness that was left was gone, and Sarieth was left with only a feeling that most people only felt when they were sentenced to death. The poor boy felt like he was drowning in stress. Once again, Sarieth got up, but this time, he put on his clothes and left the room.

----------

Once he made it out of the building, he took a deep breath. Sarieth felt much better now that he had room to think. Looking out at the sky, he noted that the sky had started to brighten up with the impending sunrise, but there were several stars still out in the sky. The cadet climbed up the tallest hill that he could find and laid down on the grass.

"Now this is better." Sarieth said to himself. He could feel some of the tension slowly easing as he enjoyed the tranquility.

As much as he didn't regret joining the academy, the fact remained that he was a very rich man. Most of the other students that was there were either:

1. Trying to impress girls.

2. Exceedingly nationalistic.

3. People who didn't think they could do anything else.

4. Forced to enlist by their parents.

5. Rowdy kids whose parents thought that military service might straighten them out.

6. Lazy.

7. Cowards.

8. People who thought they would never have to go out to fight.

9. Only there because their friends had registered.

10. There for personal reasons.

11. There to prove themselves.

12. Bloodthirsty psychopaths.

13. Destined to die in their first battle.

And so on. So when they saw Sarieth, they mostly saw some rich jerk-off who only enrolled to impress his parents and will probably never have to fight in an actual battle because he's the Spada's heir and he's too rich and important to fight and/or die for his country.

A month passed, and by that time everybody that still questioned his intentions were either convinced otherwise or beaten till they _were_convinced.

Now as he waited for the sun to rise and signal the end of his stay here, Sarieth steeled himself for whatever would happen today.

----------

In Dalkia, Kalent had just woken up from a good night's rest and was feeling ready to start his day. After a speedy wash, he put his clothes on and walked down to the dining hall to eat. However, he realized two things when he arrived.

The first one was that none of the other five Klessirpemdo was there.

The second was that since none of the other five Klessirpemdo was there, Kalent probably had to cook breakfast for them since he was the first one up.

The white-haired Spada sighed and went to the kitchen. Kalent wasn't the best cook in the world (He was too used to people cooking for him!), but he had learned enough over the past year to, at the very least, cook a meal that people could eat without having to say "Look over there!" and spit it out when he turned his head.

"Let's see what we have here." He mused while going through the assorted foods in the kitchen. After grabbing anything he thought could go together, he started to cook, noting to himself to sleep a little bit longer next time.

----------

Meanwhile, Sarieth had gotten back to his room, rested and ready to plow through whatever is thrown at him. After putting his armor on and grabbing his iron sword and katana, he left the room and walked confidently down the hall. Rhiona was waiting for him as usual, and she looked even more stressed out than yesterday.

"Good Morning." She said, trying to smooth down her frizzled hair. "I hope you slept better than I did."

"Actually, I didn't sleep all that good either." Sarieth admitted. "But that's not going to stop me! I'm pumped and ready to go!"

He grabbed his cousin's arm and drug her to the mess hall. Riese and Aeneas was waiting for them there.

"Good morning Sarieth, Rhiona." Riese greeted. "I see you're ready to get this final exam over with."

"You got that right. One more test and it's off to the battlefields for us!" Sarieth grinned. "Dalkia won't see what's coming to them!"

The other three cadets had severe doubts that the Spada could take on an entire nation with one unit under his name, but they didn't say anything. After they got done eating breakfast, they went to the main hall to meet Girardot.

----------

"At ease."

Girardot looked at the remaining students that were left after weeding out the weak and unfit soldiers. There wasn't a lot left. Only Abelia's squad, Sarieth's squad, and a few leftover cadets from squads that have been broken up.

"First of all, congratulations for getting this far in the exam. You're one last step away from leaving the nest. But first, you have to pass the final exam."

Everybody paid _close_ attention to the words that Girardot was about to say.

"While doing simulated battles against students is good, the best way to examine your potential is to wage war against an experienced and merciless foe. That's why your final exam will be a simulation against an actual veteran."

Girardot noticed that Sarieth had that usual smug, condescending smirk on his face.

"That's right, your opponent is none other than: Me."

That smirk disappeared real quick.

----------

Luna awoke to a heavenly smell.

"What is that aroma?" she though to herself as she arose from bed. "It must be breakfast cooking."

Luna went down stairs, but she noticed that nobody else was there. "If none of my subordinates are down here, then who is cooking? Could it be Kalent?"

Luna nearly laughed at the thought. That boy didn't look like he knew what the word 'cook' meant, much less how. She couldn't imagine him in the kitchen, wearing a silly apron while he put some eggs on a skillet.

But when she peeked in the kitchen, there he was, wearing a silly apron while putting some eggs on a skillet.

He turned to her. "Good morning, Luna."

"Good Morning. What are you cooking?" Luna asked.

"No idea. I'm just making it up as I go." Kalent frowned. "Hopefully, it'll be ready in about an half an hour. Go wake up your friends or something."

"Fine." Luna sighed. "But it better be done by then." She left.

Kalent shook his head and continued.

----------

Sarieth mind couldn't comprehend what just happened.

He was good, but this was a renowned general he's up against! Girardot ate people like him for breakfast! This was just great! Now he'll never go to battle! He knew that he would pull something like this out of his ass!

Girardot noticed the pissed-off look that was contorted on Sarieth's face, and continued. "Sarieth Spada, since you managed to beat Abelia, you get to go second. And since you don't really have an advantage with this type of opponent, I'll allow you to have Rhiona on your team again."

Sarieth let out a breath. "Maybe things will not be as hard as I thought." He said quietly to himself.

"Alright, while you think up a strategy, Abelia, it's time for your team to fight. Follow me."

The blond girl just gave Sarieth a look and marched behind him. The Spada sighed and ordered his troops to meet him in the library for a planning session.

Once the squad had all arrived, Sarieth sat on a chair, crossed his arms and closed his eyes, trying to think of how to beat the general. Aeneas walked over to Riese and sat down by her.

"So, how are you feeling about this match?" he asked.

"I'll admit it, I'm nervous as hell." Riese groaned. "I don't think anybody could beat Girardot, even Sarieth."

"I, for one, have faith in him. He'll find a way to beat him, just watch." Aeneas pointed at the cadet. "Look, he's probably strategy in his head right now."

It was about that time Rhiona walked up to Sarieth and knocked him upside his head. "WAKE UP!"

"Oops. I guess I dozed off..." He rubbed the back of his head and grinned nervously.

Everybody else let out frustrated sighs. They didn't have a chance in hell.

----

By time the rest of the Klessirpemdo woke up, Kalent had succeeded in making a edible meal for them to enjoy.

Lupi stared at her food. "Uh…You cooked this?"

"Yep." Kalent answered.

"You didn't poison the food, did you?"

"No."

"Did you put some foreign objects in it?"

"No."

"Did you spit in it?"

"NO."

"Did you…"

"I'm getting angry…" Kalent said slowly.

"Okay, okay, I'm eating." Lupi put the food in her mouth. Her eyes widened. "This is very good!"

"Told you."

Everybody started to follow Lupi's example and began eating. They all thought that Kalent did a great job on breakfast. Said soldier was the first one to finish, and right after he cleaned his dishes, the sound of a fist tapping a door sounded throughout the room. Since Kalent was busy, Heal-Do answered the door. It opened to reveal Roin, head of the Dalkian military.

"I didn't expect to see you here, sir." She saluted.

"Ah, Heal-Do. It's nice to see you again." Roin patted her head, which miffed the blue-haired girl a little. "Where's the rest of your little group?"

"In the dining hall." She lead her there. As soon they arrived, Lupi, Elua, and Aege nearly killed themselves trying to get out of their seats to stand up and salute their superior. Luna, however, being the insolent, arrogant girl she was, just kept eating. Roin, of course, didn't really mind, since it was that attitude that made her so unstoppable.

"Hello girls." Roin nodded. "I see you are all doing well. Do you know where Kalent is?"

About that time, said soldier walked out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a rag. "I hope you girls are full because I'm not making any…ACK!" He saluted. "Sir!"

"At ease, Kalent." Roin said. "I came here just to see how you were getting along with your new unit."

"Everything's going great, sir." Kalent smiled. "We're getting along great."

"That's good to hear. Anyway, I need to talk to Luna a bit."

"Don't you think it could wait?" She stated, mouth full of food. "I'm trying to enjoy my breakfast."

Roin sighed. "Fine. You know where to find me." He walked towards another part of the house.

Luna finished up the last of the food before leaving to hear whatever nonsense that Roin wanted to bother her with.

----------

Sarieth had been thinking up a strategy for about an half hour when…

"I GOT IT!" He shouted, scaring the rest of his unit, who had started to nod off.

"You do?" Rhiona asked. "What is it?"

"Well I'm not going to tell you now, wait till our exam starts." Sarieth winked.

A few hours later, an exhausted Abelia stumbled into the Library. She noticed that everybody on Sarieth's unit were either chatting softly, sleeping, or in the case of the unit leader himself, playing cards.

"Hmm? You're done?" Sarieth looked up at her. "That was awfully quick."

"I'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR THREE DAMN HOURS!" Abelia shouted, scaring pretty much everyone. "Anyway, yes, I'm done. It's your turn now."

Sarieth sighed and put his cards back up. "You heard her. Get going, I'll meet you all in a minute." His unit left the room and went to the battlefield. Sarieth turned to Abelia. "So, how did it go?"

"Everything went fine till I got near the General's stronghold, then all hell broke loose." She sighed, noting that one of the curls on the side of her head was messed up. "The forces got increasingly tough, and most of my unit was incapacitated. I barely got into the damn place."

"So what about Girardot?"

"He beat me senseless. I never had a chance." Abelia sighed. "He's way stronger than even you would think."

"Hmph. I'll just have to see for myself." Sarieth ran a hand through his hair. "I'm going to go out there, beat the hell out of everyone I see, and defeat Girardot. There's no turning back here, my brother is depending on me."

Abelia walked up to him and gave her friend a hug. "Good Luck."

Sarieth said nothing as he wrapped his arms around her.

----------

Yawning, Sarieth walked into his stronghold, where Riese, Rhiona and Aeneas were waiting for him.

"Well, you know what we have to do." He said. "Give me a quick report on what's going on outside."

"Nobody seems to be outside at the moment." Riese said. "We should really get started."

"Yeah, your right." The Spada grabbed his iron sword. "Let's get going. Riona, you're coming with me. Riese, go with Aeneas. We're going to make sure that nobody gets to this stronghold first, then we'll head to Girardot." He paused. "We're going to win this one. You just need to halve faith in me, Okay?"

"We all have faith in you, Sarieth." Riese gave him a hug. "We'll do our best."

"I know, Riese. Just understand that this is do or die time now. If we lose, our chances of going into battle will fall somewhere between nonexistent and absolute zero. So don't let up even for a second."

With those words, the unit left the stronghold, more driven then ever.

----------

Luna came back an hour later, looking somewhat pleased. Kalent was sitting on one of the chairs, watching Elua and Aege play another game of chess.

"You look rather happy." Kalent commented. "What did our commander tell you?"

"Dalkia is about to launch an assault!" Luna announced. Kalent nearly jumped up in surprise.

"You mean we're going into battle again? Alright!" He cheered. He hadn't been in a major battle in months, and he was getting a little bored. "On who, exactly?"

"The Grandall Empire!"

Kalent nearly screamed. Grandall? He can't go into Grandall; there are people who are looking for him. Of course, there was the chance that if he got a chance to sneak into Grandall as a supposed spy, then they would place him under the country's protection without fear of retaliation.

"Unfortunately," Luna said. "We're not to be ordered to fight right this instant."

"Oh." Well, so much for that plan. "So, we're staying here for the moment?"

"For right now, yes."

Sighing, Kalent sat back down. He wasn't very worried about what might happen to his brother, as he probably wouldn't get sent out as soon as he graduate. But still, this development could be either a blessing or a huge hindrance to his plan.

----------

Sarieth and Rhiona made it to the small stronghold without any trouble, but they barely had time to rest before the sounds of a wall being pounded told them that people were seeking to take it.

"Let me handle it." Rhiona said as she went outside to confront the intruder. It was Jinkai, one of the men assigned to Girardot's unit. Most of the students knew him as a really nice guy.

"Hello Rhiona." He said. "I'm surprised that you're out here. Where's your cousin?"

"In there. But you have to fight me if you want to get to him." She took out a Chinese Sword. "Don't underestimate me…"

"If that is what you wish." Jinkai took out his katana. Rhiona started attacking immediately. She had been using the Chinese Sword for a while now, and considered herself to be quite proficient in wielding it. Each swing was timed perfectly, and since Jinkai didn't have a lot of armor, it hurt him. He, however, had that giant shuriken attached on his back, and he had really deadly accurately when he threw it. It nicked her on a couple of occasions.

"Damn it!" she cursed. It hurt, but so far, Jinkai than she was taking more of a beating was.

Rhiona kicked him in the chest.

"You've gotten good." Jinkai adjusted the grip on his sword. "Improved much since you first came here. Makes me wonder how much Sarieth has grown."

"Well sir," Rhiona said kindly. "Here's your chance to find out. Look behind you."

Jinkai was mystified, but obeyed nevertheless. He turned to see Sarieth, arrogant grin on his face, and iron sword resting on his shoulder.

"Hi there." He said. "I see you didn't heed my cousin's advice too well…"

----------

On the other side of the battlefield, Riese and Aeneas still had yet for someone to try and attack their stronghold, so they decided to leave it and continue on their way.

"So…" Aeneas said as they walked the hot dusty trail. "If we win this battle, how should we celebrate?"

"Hmm…I don't usually go for extravagant celebrations," Riese smiled. "But if we do win, we should have a party. I'm just worried about how much Sarieth is going to drink. The last time, spent the entire next day in bed because of the huge hangover he had."

"I remember that. He wouldn't let anybody in his room because he had such a headache."

As they laughed, they came across a stream flowing with clear, drinkable water.

"I'm going to get some of this water." Riese grabbed her flask. "Watch out for any enemies for me, okay?"

"Sure thing." Aeneas scoped out the area. "I see someone coming!"

Riese sighed and closed her filled flask. "Good. I was getting bored."

"Uh…Let me handle this one." Aeneas said nervously. The blue-haired girl just shrugged.

"Are you my opponent?" A large man asked. He was wearing a helmet and had a lot of funny clothes on and almost no armor except for his shoulders.

"You could say that." He got into the fighting position. "Are you here to defeat us?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll make this quick." Aeneas charged at him, the tip of his lance hitting the man in the stomach. Since he didn't have any armor, the full force of the attack was felt by him. As his opponent clutched his stomach, the lance smacked him in the side of his head.

"You should know, even if you had a chance to fight back, I doubt that you could get in range long enough to harm me." Aeneas slammed the end of his weapon into the man's back. "For someone who's commander uses the exact same weapon as me, you sure aren't experienced with fighting lancers."

"Wow. That _was_ quick." Riese commented. "And that was one of Girardot's best."

"He was? I couldn't tell."

----------

"So...is he dead?"

"Nope. Just knocked out."

Rhiona and Sarieth was walking to their next enemy stronghold. After Sarieth knocked out Jinkai, they had tied him up and locked him in the stronghold they have just left.

"Do you think we needed to tie him up? I doubt he could take our main base down by himself." Rhiona asked.

"No, but better safe than sorry." Sarieth grinned slightly before wiping his head. "It is hot as hell out here."

"Do you think Girardot is using the heat as a tool?"

"A tool? You mean as a tactical advantage?"

"Kinda. I mean in the way that he knows that the massive heat would tire us faster than a normal day, so by time we get to the stronghold, we're too tired and weak to battle the general."

"I guessed that as well. Don't worry, the streams here have cold, drinkable water. We'll fill up there. But the main thing we should not do is stay out in this sun too much longer."

The next stronghold was up ahead. They knew they had to get in quickly, so Sarieth ran at the stronghold as fast as he could. Once he got within the proper distance, he rammed his body into the weakest part of the structure. The act didn't shatter the wood, but it did weaken it enough that it took only a few good strikes to bring the stronghold to it's knees.

Afterwards, they went in, another soldier was waiting for them. Xiaoxin, another one of Girardot's friends. Why did Sarieth always get stuck fighting the really, really strong members of the unit?

"Sarieth, I see you managed to get past Jinkai. Very impressive." Xiaoxin took out his sword.

"Spare me. You can compliment me all you want when I win this battle." Sarieth made the first move, but Xiaoxin parried his strike, causing him to go off balance a bit and made himself open to a few kicks from his opponent. Sarieth regained his composer and kicked Xiaoxin in the face in return. He swung horizontally twice, the second time causing the blunt side of the weapon to hit Xiaoxin's back. The older man swung his sword a number of times, but most of them was blocked by Sarieth's sword. Twisting his body, Sarieth slashed his sword vertically, getting his opponent in the arm.

"Bet you wish you had armor now." He said with his arrogant smirk intact. "The way I cut you arm, every time you swing your sword, it will hurt like hell. And I know that's your primary fighting arm, so you're pretty much screwed."

Xiaoxin nodded acceptingly. "You figured it out quickly. Good job."

"Rhiona pretty much uses the same weapon, so it was easy to figure your style out. If I remember correctly, you taught her some of her moves."

"That's right. She is very good with the Chinese Sword. Where is she by the way?"

"I'm over here, sir." The girl said. Rhiona had been watching while she cooled herself off. "Sarieth, are we done?

"Yep. We don't have far to go now. Let's go meet up with the others and warn them about the heat."

----------

Aeneas and Riese had been walking for an hour, and they were getting irritated in the high temperature.

"I'm toasting in this armor!" Aeneas screamed. "I need to take this stuff off!"

"Idiot! You can't do that!" Riese said, exasperated. "What if somebody comes and attacks us!"

"I know, I know, but I feel like I'm on fire!" He started stripping the metal armor from his upper body, leaving only his thin shirt. "Woo! That feels better."

Riese shook her head and took another swig from her flask. "You're right about this heat, though. We're going to burn up if we keep standing out here…"

"Hold it right there!"

"Dammit, now what?!"

The two aspiring soldiers looked up to see three female cadets coming right towards them. Aeneas jumped up and grabbed his lance, but Riese wouldn't let him fight.

"You might get hurt without the armor on your body. I'll handle them."

"But what about your wound?"

The former assassin rubbed her still sore wound absentmindedly. "It's fine, I had worse injuries. I'll only be a second, okay?"

Riese started to run, and didn't stop till she got within six feet of the three women. Jumping up, she smashed her knee into the face of the closest one there, instantly knocking her out (though it didn't stop Riese from kicking her in the side of the head when fell to the ground). In a flash, her twin wave blades were in her hands.

She clashed swords with the second woman for a few seconds, managing to avoid getting hit in the neck with the blade. Her opponent got some offense in, leaving a small cut on Riese's bare arm, but it didn't prove to be much help, as the blue-haired girl continued to tear the poor cadet apart. Riese managed to catch her opponents blade before it went through her stomach. Using her psychical skill, she flipped her opponent over, and as the girl tried to get her blade, Riese's boot landed on her wrist, causing it to snap like a pencil.

While Riese caught her breath and checked the new cut on her arm, the last remaining soldier was about to take advantage of the distraction…

"What do you think you're doing?"

The cadet froze. Looking behind her, she saw Sarieth and Rhiona Spada.

"So," The Spada wielding the iron sword said. "I wouldn't turn my back on Riese if I were you."

The cadet was still in the process of figuring out Sarieth's remark when her sword-wielding arm was yanked backwards.

"I take it you didn't really learn anything from your friend's beatings." Riese said evilly. "I guess I'll give you a more 'hands-on' approach when it comes to you…"

----------

When all was said and done, They managed to take over the last stronghold without any trouble. Now all four cadets where gunning for Girardot. They didn't even bother tying the three fallen girls up since they were way too crippled to do anything at the moment.

"Sarieth, why are you still wearing your armor?" Riese asked. "Don't you know that black absorbs sunlight?"

"I drank plenty of water the past few hours." Sarieth replied. "Besides, I'm not exactly wearing much under all this. Just chain mail and some pants."

"But aren't you hot?"

"Not really, unless you're just trying to get me to go the rest of this battle shirtless." Sarieth gave his silly grin.

Riese blushed and turned away. "Idiot!"

About an half hour later, the main stronghold of Girardot was right in front of them. After a good while of wall battering, they finally made it in.

"Let me make it clear." Sarieth said sternly. "I'll fight Girardot first. If I happen to lose for some reason, you'll get your shot. Either way, if we win this one, I'll have my cooks whip up something for you all."

Aeneas and Riese both salivated at the though of a warm meal from the Spada's skilled cooks.

They walked around the stronghold, deciding not to expend too much energy running around trying to get to the general. After ten minutes of looking, they found Girardot, standing in a square fighting ring. Surrounding it was water, seemingly coming from the streams and leading to the river nearby.

And there was Girardot, staring out into the horizon, his back turned to Sarieth's unit.

"I see you managed to make it in one piece." He said. "And with all your unit intact too. Good job."

Sarieth took a deep breath and walked forward. Girardot turned around to look at his student.

"You've grown. You might not know it, or say it, but you've grown." He said. "You're not the same overconfident student I had when you first appeared. I'm sure you will be a fine captain some day."

Girardot picked up his lance, Absolution that was leaning on one of the pillars. "If you can defeat me, that is."

Sarieth did not say a single thing, he just shifted into his usual stance. This was the final obstacle in his path of being a soldier. Determination was never one of Sarieth's lacking qualities, but with so much at stake, that word could describe him perfectly. He was going to defeat Girardot, even if he had to make it that he returns to his son in a _box_.

He decided to make the first move and swung his sword at him, but Girardot knocked it out of the way. Sarieth steadied his weapon again, but wasn't quick enough to stop the side of Absolution from smashing him in the side of his waist. Had Sarieth not been wearing armor, he most likely would have had his ribs broken from that shot.

But he wasn't fazed a bit, instead choosing to continue attacking Girardot. The tip of Absolution was blunted, so it would take an ungodly amount of force for the general to kill Sarieth, but it still hurt every time it hit him. And he took a lot of them.

Striking again, the edge of the sword hit Girardot's feet, causing him to trip, but he rolled out of the way before Sarieth's sword could cut him in half. Using his lance as a booster, Girardot flipped up, kicking his student in the jaw.

Sarieth rubbed his mouth; his jaw was thankfully still in one piece. Looking backward, he saw his team, looking at him with obvious concern. Turning to face Girardot, he glared at him.

"Don't take me lightly." He said coldly.

Tightening his grip around the hilt. He dashed towards Girardot, jumped up, and kicked him in the chest, causing the general to fall against a wall. Girardot tried to move out of the way of a follow up attack, but the long sword caught him in the shoulder. Sarieth was quick to notice it, and immediately started attacking at the injured side of Girardot, where he was weaker, since the lance was too heavy to use with one hand.

Girardot, ignoring whatever pain was still there, attempted to spear Sarieth with Absolution. As the cadet saw his commanding officer heading right at him, he sidestep the attack, and using Girardot momentum as a disadvantage, he slammed the wide end of his sword into his face. The force of the move caused Girardot to drop his lance, and it landed on the floor with a thud before Sarieth kicked it away.

"I got your weapon. So unless you have some other trick up your sleeve, I guess this means you lose."

Girardot was slightly dizzy from the blow to the head. "You are correct. I don't think I'm able to continue after an attack like that, not to mention my shoulder seems to be hurting badly." He managed to smile. "Congratulations, Sarieth. That was more than enough for you to pass."

Sarieth smiled and turned to his teammates. Giving them the thumbs up, he shouted. "IT'S OVER!" The Spada barely had time to react before the others tackled him in a giant hug.

As he watched his student try in vain to pry his friends off, Girardot smiled to himself. After that fight, he knew that he had done his job. Picking up Absolution, he walked past the celebrating team. "Don't wear yourself out too much now. You still have a ceremony to attend today."

"Ceremony?" Riese asked. "Already?"

"In a few hours, as soon as the last bunch of kids fail this test." The general replied. "So get back to the academy and rest, okay?"

"Yes sir." They all said, before heading out of the stronghold. Sarieth, however, stayed behind.

"Sir, can I ask you a question?" he said.

"Of course, Sarieth. What's wrong?"

"Do you think we'll ever find Kalent?" the heir sighed. "It's been a year since he left."

"If you are any indication, I'm sure he's okay. He's a smart boy, so I doubt he would place himself in a situation he couldn't get out of."

Sarieth nodded and started to leave. "I'll hold you to that." He gave a lazy salute before leaving.

----------

As the day wore on, Kalent had kept himself occupied in the weapons room, sharpening his daggers, and walking around the place. Heal-Do, thankfully, had volunteered to cook dinner that day, even though everyone else was begging Kalent to do it. Afterwards, he was on his way to his room when…

"Kalent!" Luna popped out of nowhere in front of Kalent, nearly causing him to stumble backwards.

"Hey Luna." He said after regaining his composure. "You need anything?"

"You've been walking around all day doing nothing!" She said. "What's up with you?"

"I don't really have anything to do around here right now." He sighed. "For the most part, I'm just sitting here hoping that I can go out and fight soon."

Luna sighed and gave a sympathetic smile. "I understand, I get bored with the lack of fighting too. But tomorrow is going to be better!!"

"Huh? Better? How?"

"Because tomorrow is the day you get officially inducted into this unit!"

Kalent scratched his head. "What do you mean by 'inducted'?"

"You'll see." Luna patted his arm. "Have a nice night." She disappeared in one of the many halls that went through the house. Kalent frowned. He certainly hoped that this wasn't going to be some ridiculous hazing ritual...

----------

That night, the academy had their graduation ceremony. Riese, Aeneas, Rhiona and Sarieth appeared before the other less successful students. They were on the stage, waiting for Girardot to officially give them their rank.

"Do you see my parents anywhere?" Aeneas asked Sarieth.

"I think they're sitting next to mine." The heir answered. "Rhiona, I think your mom is sitting below them."

"Yeah, I see her." She responded.

As the Spadas and Aeneas tried to find their relatives, Riese stood off to the side. She didn't have any family to cheer for her, and it depressed her a bit.

"Oi, Riese!" Sarieth called. "What's with the downtrodden look?"

Riese wiped her eyes. "Nothing, it's nothing."

Sarieth knew what the problem was. "I'm sure your parents would have been proud. Don't spend this night focusing on the past. Concentrate your mind on the future. You have us now, don't ever forget that."

Riese gave a big smile. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Girardot arrived, and the unit stood at attention.

"Sarieth, Rhiona, Aeneas and Riese, you have come a long way from when you first started here, so I am glad to be here to finally see you off. Sarieth, for your hard work and effort, I herby award you the rank of Commander." Giradot gave him the medal that signified his new ranking. The others received their rewards as well, Aeneas looking on proudly, while Rhiona and Riese could barely stop the tears from coming down their face.

Afterwards, while the others where off saying their goodbyes to the other students, Sarieth was emptying out his old room in the dorms. While he had some good memories here, he wasn't feeling exactly melancholy about leaving.

"Knock Knock." A female voice called from behind the door.

"Go ahead and come in."

Abelia walked in the room. She was wearing a long white dress, which was strange for Sarieth, who mostly saw her in bulky armor.

"I wonder how much money they had to bribe you with to get you to wear a dress?" Sarieth commented.

"Wearing this was my idea, stupid." Abelia frowned. "Despite what you say, I'm NOT a tomboy."

The captain just gave a short laugh before he felt her arms wrap around his neck.

"Congratulations." She said softly.

"Thanks." He replied, turning to face her.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going back to the Spada compound, and I'll probably be staying there till my unit gets an order to fight." Sighing, he adjusted his scarf. "What about you?"

"I'm going to stay here and train with Girardot for a little longer."

"So I'm probably not going to see you for a while, huh?"

There was a nervous silence. Abelia sighed. "Pretty much."

"Well, in that case, I guess it wouldn't hurt to…" He trailed off for a bit, causing Abelia's brows to furrow.

"What are you mumbling on abo...!" She couldn't finish her sentence. That was because Sarieth had all of a sudden pressed his lips over hers. Abelia struggled for a second, but eventually returned the kiss. After what seemed like forever, they finally broke for air.

"I want you to remember this one thing." Sarieth grinned as he grabbed his stuff and got ready to leave the Academy for good. "No matter what happens, don't let yourself get discouraged. I will be expecting you see you soon, okay?"

Abelia just nodded. Sarieth smiled and left the room, joining his friends who was waiting for him to keep his promise of dinner for them. Abelia walked back to her room and sat on the bed.

"Damn you, Sarieth." She thought as she took her shield and hugged it, tears falling from her face "This feeling…"

----------

Sarieth stood outside the Academy, taking one last glance before he left. Touching his lips, he remembered what he did only minutes ago.

"Heh. I guess there is something between us after all…" Sarieth thought. "I certainly hope I live long enough to figure these feelings out."

-----------

Shikkoku: I'm so sorry that I took so damn long to update, but between my other two stories and real life and all the other crap that happened between, my will to finish this chapter was challenged a bit.

But enough groveling. I hope you find this chapter good. Finally, we're actually going to start the main part of the story! Cheers Thank you for all the hits, everyone.

Notes:

Thank you Gundam Nightshade for reviewing. Sorry about the long wait, you know how life gets sometime.

The whole relationship between Abelia and Sarieth isn't going to be as clean and simple as the end of this chapter may imply. Their road is going to be a rocky one, shifting from enemies to friends to somewhat closer than friends and so on, but there's another piece to the puzzle that will add on to the confusion of who will be the final pairing for this story.

Speaking of parings, I'm not going to give those away right now, as I don't feel like hearing you all complain that I didn't pair up this person with that. If you hate who I put together, fine.

Kalent wasn't in this chapter much, but expect him to play a bigger role as this war goes on, especially considering his situation.

Now, without further ado, here's the formula for Sarieth Spada, so you can create him at home (And watch the regular Soul Calibur cast give him the beating of his life).

_---------_

Name: Sarieth

Sex: Male

Job: Knight

Weapon: Iron Sword

Face:02

Eyebrows:02,27

Lips:05,15

Eyes:01,27

Skin:05,18

Underwear:01,18

Voice: Young Man 2

All:--

Head:--

Hair: Styled Back (02,27)

Mask:--

Chin:-

Lower Torso : Chain Mail (01,25)

Mid Torso :--

Upper Torso: Light Armor (02, 24)

Arms: Metal Gloves (01,27)

Shoulders: Metal Shoulders(01,01)

Neck: Scarf (36,19)

Waist: Lord's Tasset (01,27)

Lower Legs: Chain Pants (01,17)

Upper Legs: Leather Pants (01,25)

Shins:--

Socks:--

Feet: Metal Leg Armor (01,02)

-----------

In other news: By now we've all seen the screenshots for SCIV and read the EMG article. I'm not going to make any comments about Ivy, because whatever there is to say has been most likely already been said. Taki looks good as always, Siegfried looks absolutely _AWESOME_in that new armor, even though it look like he left it in the freezer a little to long. Nighty is cool as always, and even though I still prefer his SCII look, the new one is a close second. Tira's new costume and hairdo is a little weird, but it's TIRA we're talking about, so it fits her perfectly. Mitsurugi looks the same as always, but you can't really complain about that.

As for the other stories, they'll get updated soon, I promise. But for now…

Next Chapter: Kalent gets inducted into the Klessirpemdo officially, and hilarity insures. Later, Sarieth and his unit finally go into a battle. How will he do in his first foray into war?

Keep rocking, everyone. Until next time.


	6. Star of Heaven

Disclaimer: I don't own my non-original characters. Namco does. I'm still not used to calling them Namco-Bandai now…

----------

Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

----------

The Spada Compound was a huge mansion a few miles from the capital of Grandall, Parousia. Because the family were so big, the house was designed to accommodate all of them. Because of that, the citizens of Grandall referred to the place as the Spada Compound. It was a huge place, almost as big as the Emperor's castle, and during the day you might see the many people, servants, and Spadas, commuting through the halls. During the morning, however, things are usually quiet.

Sarieth slowly woke up as soon as the sun hit his eyes. He was still trying to get used to waking up in his own room again. It was astonishing to be honest, because after all the celebrating Sarieth and his new unit did, everyone was pretty much pooped. (He was surprised that he even made it to his room.) So he wasn't expecting to be awake anytime before noon.

After putting on his clothes, he left his moderately sized room. After telling a passing person to tell the cooks to start making breakfast, he went downstairs to see Rhiona, Riese and Aeneas passed out in the guest room.

"Guys, wake up!" Sarieth said a little loud. The others grumbled a bit. "The cooks have started breakfast."

"My head hurts." Rhiona muttered.

"Well that's why you shouldn't drink so much wine." Riese answered.

Sarieth watched as the members of his new unit staggered to their feet and walked to the dining room and chuckled a bit before following them

At the dining room, which was as bigger as most houses at the time, they were sitting down to eat when the two main heads of the Spada family, not to mention Sarieth's and Kalent's parents, came down to eat. Lanzo Spada was a tall man with short, spiky brown hair, and he was pretty much the leader of the whole family. Soliari was somewhat the same age as Lanzo, and was a pretty blond. They were both very kind people, not the kind of people that comes to your mind when you think 'rich folk'.

"I'm glad to see you up this early, Sarieth." Soliari said. "I figured that you would sleep till nightfall by what happened last night. You don't feel sick?"

"Not really, mom." Sarieth answered.

"So, when do you think you will get your first assignment?" Lanzo asked.

"I don't really know." Their son sighed. "I guess we just have to wait."

Sarieth knew that his parents have been agonizing over the fate of their younger son, even though they tried their best not to so it.

"If they do assign us, I'm assuming that the commander will recommend that I be put on some stupid guard duty." He sighed. "It can't be helped, really."

"If you want, I could try to convince the commander to give you a better assignment." Lanzo said.

"I rather not be accused of getting special treatment. Besides, it's a little too early to get involved with whatever war Dalkia and the Halteese are fighting right now."

"Grandall is still training soldiers, and we aren't prepared to fight a full-scale battle right now." Rhiona added.

Soliari held her head in frustration. "In that case, I can only hope that they will send you out sooner than later."

"I hope so too." Sarieth decided to spare his mother the headache. "So, how about we go out for a bit?"

"Sorry Sarieth, but it's about time I get myself home." Aeneas stood up. "Let me know if we get any missions or stuff. Later." He waved his friends goodbye.

"I think I'll go to my room and sleep my headache away." Rhiona said, as she left the table.

"I really need to be getting home as well." Riese also got up. "But do you think you could walk me there?"

"Okay." Sarieth got up and followed Riese out the door. "Mom, Dad, have my iron sword taken down to the weapons room for me. I'll need to sharpen it later." He said before he left the room.

----------

Kalent had woken up bright and early that same morning. But with the prospect of his induction into the Klessirpemdo hanging over his head, the young man couldn't quite get the sense of impending doom from hanging over him like a guillotine.

The day, however, started off normal. The entire unit was up by time he got downstairs, so he didn't have to cook breakfast. Which really made no difference, since…

"WE'RE OUT OF FOOD!"

Kalent cringed as Luna stomped out of the kitchen. "We can't do a damn thing if we don't have any food to eat after the ceremony!"

"Ceremony?"

"Of course." Luna answered. "We can't have a induction without a ceremony. And we can't have a ceremony without a big feast afterwards. And we can't have a big feast if we don't have any goddamn food!" Luna smashed her hand on the table. Upon noticing the startled looks of her team, she calmed down a bit. Luna had an appearance to maintain.

"Anyway, we have to do it today, because if all goes according to Roin's plan, I'll be leaving in a couple of days to start our mission."

"In that case, I'll go get some food." Kalent got up.

"Kalent, the nearest town is an two hour walk from here." Lupi said. "Do you need someone to go with you?"

"I'll be okay. If I'm going to be a part of this unit, it's only fair that I pull my share of the work." Kalent walked out of the kitchen and left the house. It shouldn't be too hard to get some food. If it got too hard he'll steal a horse or something.

He hadn't been outside five minutes when it started to rain.

----------

Riese and Sarieth walked the path leading to the former temporary place of residence. It wasn't very far, but Riese wanted to ask her friend a question without the entirety of the Spada household breathing down her neck.

"Sarieth, why did your brother accept such a dangerous assignment to go to Dalkia anyway?" Riese looked at Sarieth, who game a small smile.

"Well, it's a long story." He noticed his scarf was still at the compound. "It all started a year ago. Some information had gotten to the emperor that there was a surge in arms gathering there. But the information was so vague and irrelevant that it was decided that someone would go there and try to gather some more reliable clues. However, since the military lacked anyone with the ability to not get caught, they decided to ask for the assistance of someone they could trust…"

----------

"_So, they want me to go on a spying mission?"_

_Lanzo had been approached by Girardot at the compound late in the evening, after the rest of the family had retired to their room. Kalent, conversely was listening in, his form hidden in the darkness of the night._

"_The emperor decided that there was no one more suited for the job than you." The general stated. _

"_Probably because he's a little paranoid." Lanzo didn't really agree with Emperor Strife's attitude at times, but he kept the country running good, and that was something the head of the family couldn't dispute. "Anyway, I don't really think that I can leave my family."_

"_Are you sure? It's only a mere spying mission."_

"_I don't think it's as simple as just walking into the city and gathering information." Lanzo's eyes narrowed slightly. "It could be dangerous."_

_A voice came out of nowhere. "You seem to be of need of someone to sneak into Dalkia right?"_

_Girardot looked up and saw the form of Kalent sitting on the railing on the second floor._

"_Well, I would gladly take my father's place on this mission." He said._

"_You? But you're only about fourteen years old, right?" Girardot answered. "Aren't you a little…"_

"_Young? Yeah, I know." Kalent shook his head. "But, I feel that I need to make myself useful. I have combat training, and a I know a lot in espionage."_

_Kalent jumped down from his perch, landing gracefully in front of his father and the general._

"_The Spada are not known by many people outside this country, and that's why you want one of us to go. I'm the co-heir of this family, right?" He continued. "How can I call myself that when I'm just sitting here doing nothing while Sarieth trains to go to war?"_

_Lanzo shook his head. "You're so stubborn, But you do have a point." He sighed. "Nobody else in this family really has the potential to make this mission a success. Your brother is still in training, I'm trying to keep this family in order, so you're the only one that can do this. Just try and be careful."_

"_Okay!" Kalent cheered. "So, General, do you think this would be favored by the emperor?"_

"_I'll see if he will approve this idea tomorrow." Girardot said. "I doubt he would say no, though."_

_Kalent nodded. "Well, I'm going to my room now. Good night." He let out a yawn before going back upstairs._

"_Are you sure we're making a good decision?" Lanzo asked._

"_I'm not sure. I'm just praying that this doesn't come back to bite us later." Girardot replied."_

_-----------_

_Surely enough, Kalent was approved for the job. So after a few days of planning and preparation, it was time for the young man to leave._

"_Tell me again why you're doing this?" Sarieth, who had arrived to see his brother off, asked. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into…"_

"_Of course I don't." Kalent said, packing up all the equipment he would need. "I'm a little scared, but my will to succeed do this overrides any fear I have."_

_Sarieth grabbed his brother and gave him a big noogie. _

"_Is that so?" He said as Kalent struggled to get out. "Then why don't you join the academy when you get back? I'm pretty sure you'll find some excitement over there…"_

"_It's not about fighting, It's about serving Grandall." Kalent finally pushed himself out of his brother's grasp. "I'm too young to go into the military academy right now, so this is the best way to protect this country that I could think of."_

_Kalent finished packing and slid a box from under the bed._

"_I got something for you." He opened the box and took out a silky red scarf. "Sarieth, I want you to wear this whenever you go into battle."_

_Sarieth looked at the scarf quizzically. "Uh…Is this supposed to be some kind of magic scarf or something?"_

_Kalent frowned. "No, idiot. If I get into a jam, and end up, I don't know, tricked into fighting Grandall, I would know that it's you, and I won't end up killing you by accident."_

_The two brothers shared an awkward pause. The younger Spada had a morbid sense of humor sometimes…_

"_Okay. But hopefully it won't come to that, right?" Sarieth wrapped the scarf around his neck.  
_

"_I can only hope." Kalent sighed. _

_An hour later, the entire family was outside to see him go. Soliari was hugging Kalent tightly enough that Sarieth had to pull her off him. The poor girl obviously didn't want her youngest son to go._

"_Be careful Kalent!" Soliari looked like she was going to burst into tears any moment. "I love you!"_

"_I love you too." Kalent said. "Sarieth, Dad, please don't fret for me. I'll be back soon."_

"_Stay safe, brother." Sarieth said._

_Kalent just smiled and gave the 'V' sign. "I hope I get back in time to see you graduate." He started to leave, but he said one last thing."_

"_Remember Sarieth, __No matter what happens, don't get discouraged."_

_----------_

"…And that was the last time I saw him." Sarieth finished.

"So, how did you know that something bad had happened?" Riese inquired.

"Well, the mission was only supposed to last a few months at the most. Since most forms of communication between Grandall and Dalkia had been cut off, it was difficult to assume ANYTHING. For all we know, Kalent could be okay. But the growing tension between Dalkia and Halteese has most assuming that his cover's been blown, he's been caught, or…" Sarieth let out a long breath. "I hope that Kalent's okay, but he told me not to get depressed, so I'm not."

Riese noticed the slight look of depression in his voice. "Well, I certainly hope we find him, for you're family's sake."

"Thanks, Riese." Sarieth ruffled her hair a bit, making her turn a little red.

They noticed that they had arrived at Riese's modestly sized home. "Hey, we're here." Sarieth said.

"Thanks, Sarieth." She said. "I owe you a lot."

"You don't ever have to thank me." Sarieth placed a hand on her cheek. "You and Aeneas are my friends. I'm always going to look out for you no matter what. So don't concern yourself about it, okay?"

Riese was using all of her power to keep from blushing. "Okay. I'll see you later." She went into the house, mentally kicking herself from letting him get her so worked up.

Sarieth gave a small smile as he walked back home. Riese still had a tendency to keep her feelings to herself at times.

---------

Four hours later, Kalent was carrying a sack full of food for the next few days. The rain wasn't very hard, so he wasn't soaked to the bone, but it was still rather uncomfortable, the dreary look of the clouds where dampening on his mood, and all this moisture made his bombs ineffective.

Finally, he made it into the house, but, strangely enough nobody was there. After putting the food in the kitchen, he went to his room to get some dry clothes before going back into the main room. Luna was sitting on the couch that was facing him.

"I appreciate you getting the food, but now it's initiation time." Luna had a serious tone in her voice. "Sit down in that chair over there."

Kalent quickly sat down, steeling himself for whatever crazy test he probably would have to do. "What happens now?"

"It's simple, you just have to do a couple of things." Luna took out a large piece of paper. "I need you to give us a nickname, just like the other subordinates."

Kalent facefaulted. He never bothered thinking up a nickname during his time here. He thought up the first one that came to his mind. "The Star of Heaven."

"Star of Heaven? That's pretty good." Luna smirked as she wrote it down on the paper. "Okay, Star of Heaven, do you swear to defend this unit on your life?"

"Of course." Kalent said, though in his mind he was thinking,_ 'Right until I find a way to get home, then you're on your own.'_

"Good. Now, you're a official member of this group." Luna got up. "So let's start getting the food ready."

"Wait!" Kalent stood up quickly. "That's it? I was expecting some kind of elaborate ceremony, or at least a hazing ritual."

"No need, we already did."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Luna gave an evil smirk. "We made up the story about us running out of food."

Kalent facefaulted again. "So this was planned?"

"Yep. And you passed with flying colors. Welcome to the group, Star of Heaven." Luna walked to the dining hall.

Kalent could do nothing but fall into his chair. This was going to be a long stay here.

----------

A few months later….

----------

Sarieth's team had finally been assigned to an actual post. Alas, it was only to a stronghold on the border, so nothing was being done except keep an look out for any suspicious people lurking about.

So that's what they did. One member would take his post at lookout, while the others just sit around, playing games, sleeping, or in Sarieth's case, endlessly bitching about his current circumstances.

"This just sucks." The heir mumbled as he laid on the ground, head propped up by his scarf, which he used as a pillow. "We're rotting in here. Why can't we go to a real mission?"

Rhiona was getting tired of hearing him complain. "You know Grandall aren't going to send us out and risk starting a war we aren't ready for."

"Don't bother, Rhiona." Aeneas shook his head. "He'll be like this all day. Best just to ignore him."

Meanwhile, Riese was stuck with the thankless job of taking lookout for the next hour. It was pretty foggy and dark outside, so it would be quite easy for someone to sneak in unnoticed.

The blue-haired girl stifled a yawn. "Damnit, you would think the army would at least let us do this in the day." She thought to herself, before a small speck of light caught her rather sleepy eyes. "Hmm?"

Looking carefully, she could see the specks moving closer towards the stronghold. After a few moments, Riese could make out the figures of men, so that light must have been torches. It didn't seem like a lot of people by what see could see, but still…

Riese tried her best not to chuckle while she retrieved her wave swords. She went inside and shouted, "Enemies are approaching us!"

"THEY ARE?!?" Sarieth nearly jumped up in excitement. "Well, let's go!" He grabbed his scarf and was ready to go. Rhiona and Aeneas had to stop him from bursting out of the door.

"Dammit Sarieth, calm down!" The female Spada shouted. "We need to plan this thing out first."

Sarieth huffed, but eased down a bit. "Fine. Riese, what did they look like?"

"It's too foggy to tell." She replied. "But by the small number, I guess they might be bandits trying to loot the town while it sleeps."

"Bandits, huh?" Sarieth closed his eyes as he made up a plan in his head.

"Uh…Hey, am I in the right place?"

Everybody turned to the entrance of the main stronghold. A brown haired young man in a long dark coat was standing by the doorway, a katana strapped to his side.

"You wouldn't happen to be Sarieth Spada, would you?"

Sarieth head tilted a bit to the side. "Well, that depends on what you're looking for me about."

The man straightened up and saluted. "My name is Meiga, and I was assigned to this squad a few days ago." He said.

Sarieth was surprised that they would add another member so soon. "In that case, yes, my name is Sarieth. Welcome to our team." He said. "Though I wish I had time to give you a proper welcome, we have a really, really intense situation coming up. If you want to help us, go right ahead."

Meiga unsheathed his sword. "I'm way ahead of you."

"Yuck!"

"Yuck?"

"Look at the awful quality of that katana!" Sarieth frowned. "It obviously wasn't made with quality blacksmithing."

Meiga returned the look. "This is the best I could find in such short notice, Give me a break."

"Sarieth…" Rhiona clenched her teeth. "You're making us look like rich snobs again."

The heir ignored his cousin. "Don't worry about her. It's just that whoever made it didn't seem to care a bit about durability." He tapped his own iron sword. 'A sword should last at least as long as it's user.' At least that's what I was taught."

"Uh, Sarieth?" Riese warned. "The bandits?"

"Yeah. We seem to have bandits coming towards us. They don't look very intimidating, but still, we have to be careful. Riese and Aeneas, you go east. Meiga, you go with Rhiona to the west. As soon as I see that everything is safe here, I'll join you. Everybody got that?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good." Sarieth took out his own katana and gave it to Meiga. "I'll let you use mine for the moment."

"Thank you. I never thought the Spadas were interested in those types of swords." Meiga inspected a bit. "I think I see what you meant earlier about the quality of mine."

"Yeah. I wouldn't do my family name any good if I let any of you fight with sub-par weaponry." Sarieth rested his signature weapon over his shoulder. Unplanned as it was, at the very least, it'll kill some of his boredom. A smirk slowly formed on his face.

"Now what do you say we get going and show them why we are the superior unit!"

---------

Shikkoku: Yes, I know. School can be such a bitch sometimes. Every time I tried to work on this, some random assignment pops up and I have to put stuff on hold because if I fail any of my classes, I won't have any computer to write this stuff. I hope you understand why it takes me so long.

I hope this chapter was to your liking. Yes, last chapter I said that Sarieth was going to be fighting in this chapter, but at this rate, it would be wiser to make the battle into next chapter. In fact, there will be _two_ battles next chapter.

_Notes:_

_I hope Kalent's back-story was good, because I had a lot of trouble about how to go along with it._

_Speaking of which, the nickname Kalent gave "Star of Heaven" is referring to the sun. I chose that partly because Kalent was originally supposed to be nicknamed "The Sun's Shadow". I thought that it was kinda stupid, so instead I gave him that. It sounds girly, I know._

_I'll have Rhiona's formula next chapter, but at this rate, by time the story is finished, you'll be playing Soulcalibur IV. So it seems kinda futile._

Next Chapter: Sarieth fights the bandits, but finds out that his actions only lit the fuse that will shape the rest of the war to come.

Until Next Time….


	7. Wartime

Shikkoku: I don't own Soul Calibur. The lazy bastards at Namco-Bandai do.

---------

Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

----------

If there was one thing that Riese hated, it was fighting really weak opponents. Which is why these so called 'bandits' where doing a damn good job of pissing her off.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She kicked a fallen girl in the stomach. "You are so stupid!"

Aeneas could only sigh as he looked around the stronghold for more enemies. The bandits were falling like leaves on a windy autumn day, and except for a couple of people, they didn't really put up a good fight, most likely because they were not adequately prepared for the chance that they might have to defend themselves. But even the ones that did thought that the unit that was watching the border seemed to be way more trouble than the bandits thought they were worth.

"We seem to have gotten rid of most of them." The lance wielding soldier said. Riese still seemed to be upset. "Another stronghold belongs to us."

"Some battle this turned out to be." Riese noticed the girl trying to reach for her sword and stomped her in the arm. "I'm not having any fun whatsoever."

"That's because you're _not_ supposed to be having fun." Her friend replied. "We're in a battle, remember? Victory comes first."

"Yeah yeah, I know. It's just that I was hoping that after not fighting for awhile, I could at least have a little excitement. I'll bet anything that Sarieth is having tons of fun."

----------

Sarieth, who had made sure that the border's stronghold was safe, made his way to the source of the conflict. He was expecting a fierce battle from the intruders. Instead, he got a whole lot of disappointment.

Shoddy weapons aside, everyone seemed to be unable to form a competent strategy, opting instead to charge at him and hope for the best. The end result was a trail of broken weapons and people left in his wake. By time he made it to where Rhiona and Meiga were located, whatever excitement he had been slowly fading.

"Did you have a hard time getting here?" His cousin asked him. Sarieth gave her a look of boredom.

"They all suck at fighting." He said. "I think someone probably dared them to cross the border without getting caught."

"I have to agree with you. I never had such an easy time with an opponent before."

"I see a stronghold ahead." Meiga announce. "Maybe that's where all these guys are."

"Good job. Let's get back together with the others and be on our way."

As soon as they exited the stronghold, however, they were met with two more bandits.

"Leave them to me." Meiga got his sword ready. Taking a few steps, he took a deep breath before running straight towards them. He dodged the men's strikes easily, and took the hilt of his sword and thrust it into the man's stomach, breaking his ribs. The other man decidedly tried to use his shield while attacking, but Meiga's sword went through his shoulder, and ended up getting stuck. Sarieth laughed as his officer kicked the bandit repeatedly until the katana slid out.

"Well that was a waste of a minute." The new captain said. "We'll meet up with the others over there. Let's get going."

They made a quick dash to the other stronghold to join Riese and Aeneas, before making their way to the biggest fort out of all of them.

----------

It wasn't really a fort at all, but a few torches and a cliff that led into the river that flowed through the area.

What they did find, however, a young man wearing ragged looking clothes. His hair was a brownish-orange (it was hard to tell even with the torches) he had a scar on his face, and he was wielding some kind of weird looking blade that was short, wide and flat.

"So you seemed to have caught me." He said with a confident look on his face. "Good job, though I shouldn't really be surprised."

"Uh, so you're the leader of this group?" Sarieth asked.

"You could say that." He gave a light shrug. "My name is Chester, by the way. I'm assuming you'll be taking me in?"

"Duh!" Riese said. "Now if you're willing to come with us …"

"Sorry. I can't." Chester suddenly took a swipe at the girl, nicking her on the arm. "I got things to do."

"You won't be doing much if you're dead." Sarieth warned, moving his sword into a lower stance, preparing to fight if need be.

"If you think you can take me, go ahead."

The Spada decided that Chester talked too much. "Fine." He rushed towards the man and swung his sword at him. Chester managed to dodge his weapon and countered with his own attack. His blade was thin enough that it could get into areas between armor that most other weapons couldn't get to. Sarieth felt the blade cut through the shirt that he wore underneath and into his skin. It would probably only be a small wound, but it still hurt.

"Sarieth!" Rhiona wasn't going to let this man get away with hurting her cousin. She took out her sword and started heading towards Chester.

She was a lot more graceful than the other person, so it wasn't as easy for Chester to counter her movements. Still, he was able to find an opening and kick her to the ground.

"None of you are experienced with my type of weapon, I guess." Chester shook his head. "You managed to defeat those bandits, but in the ways of warfare, you're still novices." Out of nowhere, a sword hit him under the legs, and he fell to the dirt. "What the..!"

"You talk big," Sarieth frowned. "But I really doubt that, even with your experience, you'll be able to beat all of us, especially with no armor to protect your arrogant hide."

"True. But my job is done here anyway." Chester walked towards the ledge. "It's way too early for me to die. But I promise, you'll be seeing me again, soon enough." He jumped.

Everyone rushed to see what happened, but Chester was long gone.

"What just happened?" Aeneas was the first to speak.

"I have no idea." Sarieth shook his head.

"Are you okay?" Riese said with obvious concern.

"Yeah," He rubbed his side. "Anyway, you should be happy. We were successful in our mission. Let's go back and report this to the others."

Everyone started on their way. But Sarieth stood there for a while, in deep thought. Chester was here for something, but what?

----------

It was about that time that Luna had orders to leave to start marching into Grandall.

Luna was walking down one of the many halls when she noticed that Kalent hadn't gone to bed like he usually would at this time of day.

"What are you still doing up?" She asked.

"Uh…well, I've been up all night sharpening swords." Kalent said. "The girls dumped a workload on me, and I've been doing that work all day. I would go to sleep, but I still have a little energy to burn."

"In that case, you can come with me." Luna left and Kalent hesitantly followed her till they got to a section of the hall. On the ceiling was a string, and Luna (after jumping a few times), pulled it down, revealing a staircase that led to the roof. They both climbed up to the top. Even though it was dark, it still was a nice view.

"Um…okay, why are we up here?" The boy asked. He could barely see where he was standing. Thank goodness the moon was out. "Did you want me to spar with you up here or something?"

"No, moron." Luna frowned. "It's supposed to help you relax."

"How?"

"It's quiet. Sometimes you need time to calm your mind, or else you'll get distracted." Luna said somberly. "You'll never be a strong person if you have a cluttered psyche." She sat down.

Kalent flopped down beside her.

"Even though I heard rumors about you, I was very surprised with what I saw when you joined us…"

"You were?"

"Well, I've heard plenty of rumors that you were a cold, calculating warrior that didn't show any form of mercy towards anyone."

Kalent smiled nervously. She was about _half _right.

"I also heard that you had a tendency to kill members of your own unit."

The white haired boy coughed. "Well, that happened only once, and that was because I suspected that one of my colleges was trying to give away military secrets."

"But you don't act like anything I have heard from people I've spoken with..."

"They are just rumors for the most part. If you want to know how I fight, you'll just have to wait and see for yourself. Which reminds me; I haven't gotten any missions since I arrived here…"

"You'll get your chance soon enough, if all goes as planned." Luna shifted a bit. "Everybody is starting to get restless and wants to go out to fight, but orders are orders. Roin can be a total dick sometimes."

"You can be that way when you sleep with the queen, I guess." Kalent said.

"HE WHAT?!?" Luna hadn't known about that fact till now. Kalent nearly fell off the roof in surprise.

"Shh! I'm not really supposed to be telling people that! I could get in big trouble." He said exasperatedly.

"He's sleeping with the queen?" Luna was quite shocked. "No wonder he went up in rank so fast. How did you find out?"

Kalent turned a little red. "It's a long story. Let's just say they were having a little meeting in my room, and they were a little too caught up in their 'work' to notice me coming in or running out." He scratched the back of his head. "What's your problem with Roin, anyway?"

"I think he feels like I'm out of my place." Luna scowled. "He doesn't seem to take me seriously just because I'm so young."

"I know how you feel. Nobody wanted a sixteen year old to be in their squad either. But they were quick to accept me after I threatened painful deaths to anyone who didn't."

"I thought you said that you didn't kill your teammates."

"No, but I did end up having to hurt a lot of them."

Luna let a small laugh escape from her mouth. "I hope you're not just making that up to impress me."

"Of course not." Kalent yawned "I really need to get to bed, but I'm so tired that I probably won't be able to wake up in time to see you off."

"I guess that's understandable." Luna got up and went back inside.

Kalent was tempted to tell Luna not to get discouraged, but instead just said, "Be careful out there."

"No one has managed to defeat me yet." Luna gave a smug smile. "You don't have to worry."

Kalent nodded and retreated to his room to go to bed. "Luna's such a complicated girl." He thought. "Hopefully, I can stay long enough to learn more about her…"

-----------

"Dalkia has declared war on Grandall." The emperor announced.

Apparently, the 'bandits' that Sarieth and his unit had taken out had Dalkian soldiers among them. Dalkia wasn't happy, and instantly declared war on the empire, who was still trying to amass fighters and weapons.

When word reached Sarieth, he nearly spit out the food he was eating at the time. He didn't know whether to feel excited (since he was most likely going to be marching into Dalkia and getting his brother back), or guilty (because his unit, theoretically speaking, provoked Dalkia into going to war with Grandall), but all of that was put on the wayside when Aeneas was escorted to the dining hall while the Spada family was eating breakfast.

"Sarieth, Dalkian units are approaching the border." He stated gravely. "Giradot is ordering us to go assist the others that are already fighting. Riese and Meiga are already waiting."

The heir gave his friend a look. "Just like that, huh?" He said flatly.

"I know it's sudden, but we have orders."

Sarieth got up from the table, his parents giving him a worried look. "Mom, Dad, tell the servants to get my supplies to the front of the door. I'll be there in a minute, Aeneas." He started on the way upstairs to get his armor, passing Rhiona on the way.

"Uh, what's wrong?" His cousin asked. Sarieth turned around and gave her a big grin.

"We're going to war."

---------

When they got to the border, everything was a total mess. Sarieth's unit was supposed to be reinforcements, but it turned out that there wasn't anything to reinforce, per say. The border stronghold was fine, but as for most of the soldiers…

"They're not doing so well." Meiga said. The unit was in the mist of what could count as a makeshift medical ward. "This attack was unexpected, so a lot of the experienced people were not available to fight, so they had to make due with some of the graduates from the academy."

Sarieth frowned. "This doesn't look like it's going to be a simple one like last time." He announced. "So, did they say what's the enemy is like?"

"Well, there's quite a few that say that some girl with a Chinese Blade is going through them like water." Meiga replied.

"A girl? You got to be kidding me. A girl is doing that much damage?"

"Well, there are others too, but it's been primarily her that has been causing the most problems."

Riese sighed. "Can we go outside? The smell of blood is making me feel dizzy." She pleaded.

Sarieth nodded and took the unit outside to plan an attack.

"Once again, it's up to us." He said to himself. Sarieth was feeling unusually stressed. Part of him wanted to go out and fight anything that moved, but the somewhat more reasonable part of him remembered that he was head of a unit, and going out, swinging your sword wildly and hoping you don't die isn't exactly a good strategy against experienced fighters.

"Aeneas, I need you, Rhiona and Meiga to go to the nearest strongholds that you can find and fortify it." Sarieth went back to 'War Machine' mode. "Riese, you're coming with me, as I may need your assistance with this mystery girl."

"Yes Sir!" Everyone replied.

"We don't have time to waste." He took his sword out of his stealth. "Let's get moving, for good of the country."

Everybody instantly scattered.

------------

"So, why did you ask me to come with you again?" Riese asked. They had come across only three soldiers, but they didn't really last long enough to pose a threat.

"To be honest, it's because I didn't feel all that comfortable going by myself." Sarieth said. "I'm excited, but I also have a sense of anxiety in the pit of my stomach."

"I understand. I feel the same way too." Riese patted him on the arm. "But this is something we'll get used to. Besides, if all goes well, our unit will probably be ordered to go to Dalkia, and you know what that could mean…"

"We could find Kalent." Sarieth gave her a smile. "But let's not look too far ahead. We got to take care of business first."

"Sarieth…" Riese couldn't be upset long with him.

They walked for a while till they gotten view of a young girl in the middle of the battlefield, a frustrated look on her face.

"You would think after all that I could get someone who knows what the hell they are doing, Damn it!" She stomped in frustration. "This mission bites!"

Sarieth gave Riese a signal to stay back while he confronted the girl.

"Heh, so you're the girl that killed a lot of my comrades, huh?" He said.

Luna looked at him with a bored expression. "And you might be?"

"Sarieth. My name is Sarieth…" He didn't really want to use his last name around a Dalkian, just incase they figure it out, and that could mean big trouble for Kalent. "And you've been causing a lot of trouble, little girl."

"Shut the hell up. You'll just end up like all the rest I faced. Dead in a minute or less." Luna twirled her sword around for a moment. "We'll see who's the 'little girl' when you're writhing on the ground."

"Irritating…" Sarieth got into position.

Luna smirked. She was getting under his skin. Sarieth swung his sword in an effort to disarm her, but she blocked it with her blade easily. However, she left herself open to a boot to the chest, knocking her back a bit. She answered with a slice that cut a bit of hair from the side of his head.

"That's the saddest blade I ever seen." Sarieth goaded, even though he had no plan of attack. They didn't really make Chinese Blades in the Spada Compound, so it was a kinda foreign thing to him. "Then again, it's probably a kid sword especially made for…GAH!"

Luna had taken the opportunity to attack Sarieth while he was bragging, hitting him in the shoulder, which, unfortunately, wasn't covered with armor.

"Yeah, yeah. Save it for someone else." Luna said.

The Spada clutched his shoulder in pain. "Shit…" Thankfully, it wasn't deep, so he could afford to bear with the pain for now. He got back into position. "Lucky shot."

"I don't need to rely on luck." Luna attacked again, but was blocked by Sarieth's sword. "At the very least, you're more resilient than most of the others I've fought."

Luna was way faster than anyone he's faced before. She twirled and spun circles around him, sword dancing all the way. Sarieth was barely able to block her attacks, and they were too fast to dodge.

Luna was also good at kicking him really, really hard.

"You really think you can win, do you?" Luna taunted as she kicked Sarieth in the head while he was getting up. "How stubborn."

Sarieth's will wasn't getting any stronger, but he got up. "You really need to be quiet."

Luna frowned and started to run towards him, but Sarieth spun around and smashed his sword into her arm. It wasn't hard, but it still hurt Luna quite a bit.

"Don't think I can't adapt to your speed." Sarieth coldness started to leak into his words. "And I hope you can keep fighting with a bad arm…"

Luna was irritated now. "I'll never lose to someone like you." She gripped Dystopia. "I'll rather die."

"If that's what you wish." Sarieth took the opportunity to rush towards her while he still had a second wind.

The two clashed and they both went back and forth, fueled by desire to win at all cost. Sarieth was looking for any opening he could find to end the match.

"Come on……" Sarieth turned around, preparing for an attack from Luna. '

She let down her guard for that split second, and that's all it took for the iron sword to slam into her stomach. She fell to the ground, and it didn't look like she could continue…

"I….I…" Luna couldn't believe it. She lost. Lost to a mere rookie soldier, of all people. Taking her sword, she rose to her feet.

"Lighting never strikes twice, Sarieth. You got luck on your side, but it won't get you far." She said in a low voice. "Be assured, the next time I see you, _you will die._"

Sarieth could only watch as Luna, using all the energy she had left, ran off, disappearing into the horizon. With all the adrenaline gone from his body, the pain in his shoulder returned full force. Riese finally ran and checked on her friend. That fighting made his wound worse. Sarieth unhooked the armor from his body, leaving him in only his shirt, which was partly soaked in blood.

"That's…pretty bad." Riese said. "I think I brought something to help keep it clean. Take off your shirt."

Sarieth let out a laugh. "Out in the open? What if the others see us?"

Riese turned red with embarrassment. "Shut up and do as I say!"

Sarieth removed his shirt, revealing the nasty cut on his arm. After Riese cleaned the blood off of it, she poured a strange liquid on it. Sarieth felt like he was on fire for a few seconds, that stuff really burns.

"What the hell is in that?" Sarieth managed to choke out.

"Something I learned to make a while ago. It helps keep the wound from getting infected." She covered the injury with some cloth. "You should have called for my help…"

"I know. I just lost my focus because that girl was just so infuriating." Sarieth started to put his clothes and armor back on. "But it all turned out for the better."

"How?"

"Well, I managed to beat the girl that nobody else seemed to be able to beat, and you got to see me with my shirt off." The Spada gave a weak laugh.

Riese frowned. At this point she was never going to stop blushing. "You're such an idiot."

----------

The rest of the battle was pretty much business as usual. A lot of the remaining soldiers were low level, so they didn't take long in disposing of them. It took even less time to get to the enemy's stronghold.

But rather than wait for the unit to tear it to pieces, the head of the attacking army, Areon, stepped out. With his dark armor and huge sword, he was definitely an intimidating presence.

"So it looks like I have to deal with this myself." He said. "Okay, which one of you losers want to go first?"

"Rhiona?" Sarieth got his cousin's attention. "How about you do the honors of ending this battle for us?"

"Really? Okay." She walked up to Areon, who chuckled under his mask.

"They sent a girl out to fight me? This is going to be a cinch."

It was too bad for him that Rhiona was near impossible to hit. Her graceful use of the Chinese Sword was very fluid and quick, not leaving many opening for him to use his large, clunky sword, which he swung around recklessly like a man with a flyswatter.

The moment Rhiona knocked Areon's sword from his hands, it was over. She spun and stabbed him right in the stomach, and he crumbled to the ground.

"Well, Sarieth, now that I thoroughly killed his masculinity, can we finish this?" Rhiona asked.

"Of course." He mussed her hair a little. "You did a good job."

Rhiona smiled before rushing off to take over the stronghold.

------------

Luna reached a river when she finally stopped running. Placing Dystopia on the ground, she collapsed on the grass. The injury to her stomach was still sore (thankfully her clothes had a bit of armor in them or she would have been in trouble), but what hurt even more was the fact that she lost.

"And right after I told Kalent that I never lose, too." She said to herself. "What a way to show him how to fight."

Luna remained like that for about seven minutes before getting up. She wouldn't get to emotional. Luna would just have to return to Dalkia and wait for further orders. Roin might make remarks about her loss, but she didn't care.

Taking the ties that kept her hair in those ponytails, she went over to the river and poured some of the water into her face. After a few minutes, she shook the water from her face. Looking up, she saw that the sun was setting and the moon was out, which gave her some comfort.

"At the very least," She said to the moon, smiling weakly. "I haven't fallen out of your good graces."

-----------

Shikkoku: Well, I managed to update all three stories in the span of a month. I should give my self a reward, but alas, university has left the family broke, which leads to another problem…

My PS2 has finally bit it, not only does that prevent me from giving you CAS formulas, but it really makes it hard to write this story. I usually play before each chapter so I have a good idea of the characters and the setting. But because I have no way to play Soul Calibur III, I'm stuck having to do this from memory of going through the game three times. And it'll probably be that way till someone saves up enough money to get a new one.

Notes:

_That whole scene between Kalent and Luna took forever to write, because I didn't know how to make the scene work without pushing their relationship too fast._

_Since next chapter deals with Abelia returning, the whole thing between Sarieth and Riese is going to take a back seat till they get to Halteese (or what will be left of it)._

_I might put Kalent in a small battle next chapter too, because, for one thing Luna's probably not going to be in the next chapter, and Kalent should really get a little action. Since it is Kalent fighting, it's probably going to be way more violent than anything you seen thus far._

I'm tempted to do a rant about the lack of info that Namco-Bandai have given us about SCIV, but I'll just be patient, as I probably won't have a PS3 by time it comes out, anyway.

Next Chapter: Sarieth and the others march into Dalkia, meet a new girl, and is ordered to defend a bridge. That's right. Meanwhile, the Klessirpemdo decide to drag Kalent into town for food, and end up having to fight their way out…

Stay frosty, everyone. (I know I am in this weird weather.)

Until Next Time, Sayonara.


	8. Grandall, Dalkia, and the Bridge

Disclaimer: Namco owns the concept and rights of Soul Calibur and COTS. I'm just using them to write a mediocre story….

Sorry about the wait. I'll explain later, right now get ready for the next (somewhat) riveting chapter of:

---------

Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

----------

Soon after the border of Grandall was successfully defended, Sarieth's unit was given the go ahead to march to Dalkia and destroy their capital. Of course, Sarieth was anxious to leave, and after saying his goodbye to his family, he was ready to go find his brother, but before all that, his unit had to wait for another person to come with them.

So, right outside the entrance to the capital, Sarieth, Rhiona, Aeneas, Riese and Meiga waited for that person to arrive. The only real issue they had was the fact that they had to get up so early in order for them to arrive at their ordered destination in time. Rhiona and Meiga had more or less given up on trying to stay awake and went to sleep on the ground, while the others tried their best not to doze off.

Through the early morning haze, Sarieth saw someone coming. It was way too dark to see too far, but he could have sworn that it looked familiar.

"Hey, wait…" He said. "Is that Abelia?" As the image started to get clearer, Sarieth saw that familiar face. She obviously saw him too, because she started to run right toward him. Sarieth assumed that she was going to hug him, but instead he got a fist in the face. "OW!"

"Good morning, everyone." She smiled; ignoring her friend who was painfully clutching his face.

"What are you doing here?" Aeneas asked. "Did you finally pass your exam?"

"Yes I have, and that's partly the reason why I'm here today."

"Oh, I get it now…" Sarieth stated. "You're one of my subordinates now. That means you have to take orders from me!" Whatever pain that he was feeling seemed to disappear, as the captain had a huge smile on his face.

"Actually, I'm now technically the same rank as you, so you can't order me to do _anything_." Abelia said. "I'm merely here to assist you in your assignment till I can have a suitable unit given to me to work with."

"Wait, didn't you have a unit?" Sarieth said, somewhat disappointed.

"Let's just say that I didn't really get a lot of help passing that exam this time around." She said somewhat bitterly. "By time I got to Girardot, most of my unit was too injured to continue. So while they get some more training, our general decided that it would be a good idea to have me join you into your trek to Dalkia."

"Well, if that's the case, then I can't really dispute your reasoning." He smiled. "So, now that you're here, let's get going shall we?"

"Don't you think we should wake these two up first?" Riese pointed at the sleeping duo. Sarieth was about to say yes when he suddenly thought up something..

"I think I have a better idea."

Sarieth consulted with his two friends for a bit, before they went over to Meiga and moved him as carefully as they could, pushing him to where Rhiona was sleeping and strategically placed him right next to her, positioned so that it looked like Meiga was snuggling up to the girl before they all started to walk away.

"Hey you two," Sarieth shouted, "We're going to leave you if you don't get up!"

Then everybody stopped walking and waited for something to happen. After what seemed like a long time, the sound of Rhiona shrieking reached their ears. Sarieth and his entire unit started laughing, not stopping till he saw the image of his angry cousin coming at him with her sword.

"_**I'm going to kill you!"**_ She shouted. Sarieth decided the appropriate course of action was to run away, and he did, still laughing the entire time.

---

Kalent, as usual, woke up with a yawn. Slipping out of his bed, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before he figured that he would have to make breakfast for the others again. One thing he had gotten used to over his time was trying to wake up earlier than he normally did. Kalent was a late sleeper, and he usually wouldn't get up until the staff (A lot of the Spada didn't like having to call them 'servants') would come into the room and try to wake him up.

In the military, he didn't have that luxury, so a lot of the time he would have to be forcefully removed from his quarters. At first Kalent was irritated; he didn't like having to get up before the sun had time to rise completely, but with time, he got used to it, even though he would occasionally sleep in when he had the chance.

Kalent was lost in his thoughts when he made it to the kitchen, but he instantly snapped to reality when he noticed the miniscule amount of food. There wasn't enough to fix himself breakfast, much less anyone else.

"This really sucks." Kalent sighed as he tried to assess the situation. "The girls aren't going to be happy about this."

"Be happy about what?" A voice said from behind him. Had Kalent not been trained not to be surprised, he would have jumped.

"Lupi?" He asked, turning around to see her wearing what he assumed was nightwear. It wasn't anything real revealing (it was basically a black shirt that came down to her thighs), but it was enough to turn Kalent red, which was easy to see with the white hair and all. "What are you doing up?" He said quietly as he forced himself not to look at her body.

Lupi crossed her arms. "Well, I had wanted to spare you the trouble and cook breakfast, but it looks like we have a little problem." She said

"Little? That's a pretty _light_ way of putting it." Kalent went to the table and sat down by it, trying to think of what to do. "I'll leave right now and I should be back in time before the others gets too cranky."

"I think that the others will understand." Lupi leaned against the table. "It's not really important anyway, because we need to go into town anyway."

"We do? For what?"

"There's something Eula needed to 'see', but while we're there, there's a place that we can go eat at."

Relieved to hear that, Kalent got up to leave, but Lupi pushed him back down on his seat.

"There's still something I want to discuss with you." She said. "Luna told me about that nickname you gave yourself. Star of Heaven? Where did you come up with that?"

The boy let out a short laugh. "I made that thing up on the spot. I didn't really think I could come up with something clever. That's reminds me, I never got to learn your nickname…"

Lupi thought about it for a moment. "I never told you?" She said. "They call me the 'Fires of Hell'.

Kalent was confused. "Why would anybody call themselves that?"

"Because I'm a hot-headed, impulsive young woman who likes to make people suffer." Lupi said casually.

"Okay…" Kalent said, not sure of how to respond to that. That sounded a little bit like Kalent.

"Don't worry. I have no reason to do anything to you...right now." She assured him. "Just don't do anything too stupid, or you'll end up with Blazecleaver right through your chest."

Kalent inwardly cringed at the thought. It was about that time that Eula bounded down the steps, already dressed in her usual outfit. She noticed the lack of activity coming from either of them. "Good morning, you two. Why are you just standing there instead of cooking or something?"

"There's no food." Lupi answered. "We'll eat when we get into town."

"If that's the case, get a move on then." Eula said impatiently. "I seem to be the only one that seems to be ready to leave."

"Well, that's _probably_ because it's way too early. I bet Heal-Do and Aege aren't even awake yet." The red headed girl said. "Stop being so impatient, Marta will still be around when you get there."

"Hey! Don't mention him!" The green-haired girl blushed and turned away. "He's just my friend, that's all."

"Spare me…You're still giving us that crap about you being 'just friends'? Who do you think you're fooling?"

"Why you…!"

Kalent took that as a sign to get back upstairs, while the two girls started to argue.

"Feh. I suppose it's not all that bad. At least I can go back to sleep for a few."

---

Sarieth and his squad were now making their way to the river that separated Dalkia and Grandall. It was a long trip indeed, made even longer by the fact that most of the squad was starting to get bored. Sarieth (who had managed to avoid Rhiona long enough for her to calm down) was mumbling about not being provided horses of anything to get them there faster, Rhiona was now more embarrassed than angry, trying to prevent looking directly at Meiga, who was trying to just erase the whole memory out of his head, Abelia was starting to get tired, and Riese was busy trying to talk Aeneas into carrying her on his back the rest of the way.

Granted, the scenery wasn't that bad to look at, but after a while, it got a little repetitive. It wasn't till they saw the river that the others started to get a bit livelier.

"Yeah! We've reached it!" Sarieth announced suddenly. "I see the river up ahead!"

"Does that mean we're almost there?" Rhiona yawned.

"It means that we're almost at our stronghold." Sarieth broke out into a run. "Come on! We'll get there faster if we run!" He dashed down the hill, leaving his tired team forced to chase after him, lest they get left behind.

Sarieth was the first to reach the stronghold, and everyone else made it a few minutes later, glaring daggers at him before they collapsed in exhaustion on the ground. He smiled nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that. Let's rest here for a while."

For the next thirty minutes, they stayed in the stronghold, trying to recover from the long journey. It wasn't till the sound of someone entering the stronghold reached their ears. Because of the way the place was designed, the only one that could have entered would have been an ally. Knowing that, everybody grudgingly got up.

A young girl appeared out of one of the entrances. Her blond hair was cut short and she wore mostly red armor, accented by the red breastplate on her chest. The most intriguing thing was the giant sword she carried with her, which looked like it was bigger than her. She looked kind of sleepy, but instantly woke up as soon as she saw the others.

"Ah!" She stood at attention. "You must be the people who were supposed to come here…is that you Abelia?"

"Eurydice!" Abelia nearly knocked over the others to give her a hug. "I haven't seen you in ages."

"Me too. I've missed you so much." Eurydice replied. Everyone else just looked on in confusion. How did Abelia know this girl, and why haven't they ever seen her before?

"Alright, that's enough of that." Sarieth pulled Abelia off of her friend. "My name is Sarieth Spada."

"You're Sarieth?" Eurydice looked surprised. "I didn't realize you were the person they sent. From what Abelia told me about you, I figured that they would have kicked you out of the academy ages ago."

Sarieth gave his fellow captain a dirty look. "No, I managed to graduate. Before you're friend did, in fact."

"In any case, my name is Eurydice." She bowed politely. "I was sent here to scope out an issue with the bridge that connects Grandall to Dalkia. If you would please come with me…"

She led the others out of the stronghold, from where they were before they couldn't see it, but now they had full view of the bridge.

"The Whelsdat Bridge…it used to be a way of encouraging commerce between the two nations, but now, we seem to have a slight problem." She pointed to the strongholds that littered the land just past the other side of the bridge. "Dalkian forces are descending on the bridge, and if they are about to do what I think they are, we could be in trouble."

"So we need to make sure Dalkia doesn't takeover the bridge, right?" Aeneas said.

"Yes. We cannot afford to lose this bridge. It's more or less the shortest route we can take to get to Dalkia."

Sarieth gave a small roll of his eyes. _"It can't be helped."_ He thought to himself, before speaking. "I guess we need to come up on a strategy. Is there any other information that you can give us?"

"Well, there's a smaller bridge a ways from here. I don't know if they would bother to use that, but I think that it's a good shortcut to their main base." Eurydice replied.

"Really? Why don't they just sneak into Grandall on that bridge?"

"Because, the whole point is to impede our progress." Abelia spoke in. "They failed in their attempt to get into the country, and since they know that we would be retaliating, they want to keep us at bay long enough for them to rethink their strategy."

"Besides, that bridge is old and creaky." Eurydice said. "I would be too scared to walk across it, especially with my sword. I doubt that they could send an entire unit on there without it eventually breaking apart. It's not very viable."

"Well then…are you planning to fight with us?"

"Most definitely." Eurydice smiled. "I will defend the bridge with my life."

"_It would be a shame for you to die trying to save a bridge."_ Sarieth thought to himself. "Now all we have to deal with now is the plan."

"Do you even have one?" Abelia looked doubtful.

"Well…" The captain scratched his head for a moment. "We obviously need someone to go protect that bridge, and since Eurydice has already volunteered to go there, we need to decide who goes with her. Aeneas?"

The person in question, who had been daydreaming a bit, looked up. "Ye?"

"Do you think you can work with her?" Sarieth asked. "I think she would benefit from being with you.

"I'll be glad to." Aeneas replied. "It would be rude to make her fight on her own, so I'll go help her out."

"In that case, I think Riese should go with you. You two work well together, so it won't be a problem defending that bridge, got it."

"Yes sir."

"Rhiona and Meiga, you'll be coming with me and Abelia." He continued. "We'll probably split along the way, so we'll cover more space. I don't think there will be much resistance around the main stronghold since the focus for them is the bridge, but we still have to be careful, so don't let your guard down."

Abelia was shocked. This wasn't like Sarieth to come up with a plan that….reasonable. "Well….er…I think that's a logical plan."

"I'm glad to see there are no problems. So do we all have an understanding of what our job is?" Sarieth asked his fellow soldiers. They all nodded. "Good. Now let's go."

---

By time the Klessirpemdo had arrived in town, everyone was starving. This was a different town than the one Kalent went to get food for his 'initiation'; it a bit farther and it wasn't as small as the other one. The townspeople were somewhat nervous around them, though most of them were wondering who this new guy was doing in the group.

"Is he supposed to be some sort of messenger boy or something?" One person said.

"Maybe he's their new butler or something." Another said. Kalent muttered to himself about wishing he had his bombs with him.

"Don't listen to them…." Heal-Do calmly stated. "They're not all that fond of us either."

"Why is that? You're a part of their army, aren't you? Shouldn't they be grateful?"

"Most are, but our little group doesn't have a good reputation among the people of this town. It's a long story." The blue-haired girl explained to him. "To be brief: Luna had a little issue with another soldier from this town and she ended up killing him, and a lot of people here has had a little issue with us ever since."

"He had it coming for trying to make a fool out of our leader." Aege added. "

"Feh…Bastard." Eula said in distain.

"So, if this place is so hostile towards us, why are we here?" Kalent asked.

Lupi, Heal-Do and Aege all pointed at Eula. "It was her idea, not ours."

Kalent rolled his eyes. "Well, since we're here now, where do we go first?"

"We should let Eula go see her little 'friend' before she throws a fit." Lupi said. "You'll and I will go with her, or else she'll never leave."

"That leaves us then." Aege took Heal-Do by the arm. "I'll go see if there's a restaurant that will still let us eat."

After the group split up, Lupi, Eula and Kalent walked till they got to a plain looking shack in the middle of town. Well, it wasn't exactly a shack, it was a bit too big for that distinction, but it wasn't anything worth noting. Eula knocked on the door, and they could hear the sound of someone walking. The door opened to reveal a young man who looked somewhat around the age of the girls. His hair was slightly long and had a dark tan color to it. He looked be somewhat tired, but it instantly faded when he noticed who his visitor was.

"Eula….I haven't seen you in a good while." He said, reaching out to place a hand on her cheek. "I've been busy, but I have missed you."

A faint tinge of red fell on the girl's face. "Marta….I've missed you too."

"It hasn't been that long." Lupi muttered.

Marta glanced at her. " How nice, it seems you brought along Lupi and….er….who's the kid? Some kind of indentured servant?" Kalent could feel his eye twitching.

"His name is Kalent, and he's in our group now." Lupi said.

"I see. Welcome to the club, Kalent." He said as he let them into the building. It was a bit bigger than it looked from the outside. Various weapons hung from the walls, and pieces of armor sat at a shelf sitting on the other side of the room.

"I assume you don't know what my job is, do you?" Marta asked Kalent.

The white-haired boy shrugged. "Not really."

"Well, here's the basic idea. I kinda run an armory in this town. Soldiers come here to either ask for weapons, or give me old swords and armor they have that so I can try to make them like new again." He picked up a helmet from the shelf. "It's something I can do for the military, since they still haven't let me resume active duty yet."

"Huh? You're part of the Dalkian military too?"

"Only on a technical basis at this point." Marta sighed wistfully. "It's a long story. Well now, I don't see your leader with you."

"Luna's off on a mission," Eula answered, "though she really should have left us word by now on its progress."

"Oh, that's right. I had gotten some news about that failed assault on Grandall."

"FAILED?!?" Eula, Lupi and Kalent all said at once.

"Yep. They were doing real good till backup arrived. From what I've heard they were a bunch of 'new recruits'."

"_New recruits? That couldn't be…"_ Kalent thought. "What about Luna? Is she okay?"

"She got beat up, but she managed to get away quickly. As far as I know, she should be on her way back here right now."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"I guess this means that Luna will be in a sour mood when she gets back." Lupi said to herself. "So Marta, since you don't seem to be doing anything, why don't you come and eat with us?"

"Why I never thought you would be so kind to invite a lowly peasant to eat with the infamous Klessirpemdo." He said jokingly.

Lupi rolled her eyes. She liked Marta, to be honest, but he was annoying at times with his teasing attitude. As they left the building, she noticed the distant look in Kalent's face.

"Hey, are you alright?" She said with some concern. The white-haired boy broke from his reverie.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled, trying not to make her worry. "Just a little tired, that's all."

Lupi nodded and focused her attention back to trying to find the other two members of her group.

Kalent let out a sigh. _"This situation just keeps getting more complicated every day." _He thought. _"I should be happy that Sarieth is trying to find me, but still…"_

---

"We're here." Eurydice said as they made it to the bridge. It wasn't a long trip, but Riese and Aeneas were still exhausted from the initial trip, enough that the wave sword wielder had forced her friend to carry her on his back.

"It's about time…" Riese climbed down from Aeneas' back. "Sorry about that."

"It's no big deal." Aeneas cracked his neck. "So Eurydice, I've been meaning to ask you, did you go to the Academy?"

"Yes. I got there a while after you and Sarieth did, so you didn't really see much of me then." She said. "Abelia has been a good friend for most of my life, so she helped me along with studying. I've heard about Sarieth and you two, though."

"What exactly _did_ you hear?" Riese said.

"You know, stuff like Sarieth beating up other trainees, you three skipping class on a constant basis, things you probably already know of…" She smiled. "I don't really mind, though. It sounds like something I can handle. Now let me check out what's going on outside right quick."

As she walked away, Aeneas took the time to admire the figure of the new girl. _"Even with that armor on, she has a nice body…" _He mused, before Riese elbowed him in the gut.

"Stay focused!" She hissed quietly. "You'll have plenty of time to undress her with your eyes later!"

"Hey, I can't help the fact that she's cute." Aeneas gave his smile. "I have an eye for girls, remember?"

"Whatever."

"Guys, get ready!" Eurydice's voice came out to interrupt their discussion. "Dalkian forces are heading our way!"

"Already?" Riese muttered, grabbing her wave swords. "They want to die that quickly, huh?"

"Try not to get too violent, will you?" Aeneas said. "We wouldn't want to scare Eurydice away because of your constant need to slaughter everyone in sight."

"I'll try." She said in a flat tone. "But no promises."

"Hurry up!" The blond girl shouted as she grabbed her sword and rushed outside, with the others right behind her.

Outside there were a good number of soldiers wielding various weapons, coming right at them. Eurydice could feel her hands tremble a little. This was her first taste of real battle, and she didn't really want to think of what would happen if she failed.

---

Meiga and Rhiona walked alone on the long path, not really knowing what to expect. They were still feeling a little awkwardness over what had happened this morning, so they didn't really say anything for a good while.

"Hey, Meiga," The female Spada finally said, "I'm sorry for what my idiot of a cousin did this morning."

"Don't worry about it. It was a simple misunderstanding and nothing else." Meiga waved it off.

"I guess I did lose my composure back there." Rhiona let out a weak laugh.

"That's an understatement. Are you always this hostile towards each other?"

"Of course not. Sarieth helped me get into the academy after my father died." She said sadly, "If it wasn't for him, I would have never gotten the strength to join the military. He's cocky and he sometimes gets too overconfident for his own good, but I have faith in him and his ability to succeed and I will fight with all my strength to help him."

"The bonds of a family, how touching…"

"So since I obliged you, how about you tell me something about yourself, Meiga?"

"There's nothing interesting about me that you'd care about. I joined the Academy on a whim and I graduated a few months after you guys left. They insisted that I'd be placed with your group; from what I've heard, a lot of people were saying something about how you guys need all the help you could get."

"Yeah…I suppose I can understand why they would think that---wait, did you say joined the military on a whim?"

"Pretty much. I don't really have much else going for me except being able to wield this katana and fight this war. It gives me a purpose, and to me, that's enough motivation for me."

"But what you do once this war comes to an end? Do you have anywhere to go?"

"I'm not going to worry about that at the moment. As they say, why concern yourself about the future when there are plenty of problems you can deal with today?"

"That's a good point."

As the two continued to follow the dirt path, they happened to stumble upon a lone stronghold, which seemed out of place in the grassy farm area that they were in at the moment. It was actually one of theirs, but had been broken into by two soldiers who were hiding out, looking out for anyone that might try to take over the main stronghold by sneaking in from behind. With the arrival of the two Grandall soldiers, one of them leapt out to greet them.

"Stop right there!" He announced suddenly. "I'm not going to let you go past this point. You're going to have to get past me first!"

"Oh please…" Rhiona shook her head; she doubted that he would pose much of a threat

"Let me take care of this pest, Rhiona." Meiga took out his sword and approached the soldier standing in front of him.

"You'll be going first, then? Alright, I see that this isn't going to take long."

Meiga started running and the soldier held up his shield to block the oncoming attack. Unfortunately, in his arrogance, he didn't count on how weak his defense really was. It only took Meiga making a quick step to the left to leave his opponent totally out in the open. Within seconds, the man was down on the ground, blood pooling from the cut that Meiga's sword inflicted upon him. The other soldier came running out, but upon seeing the results of the fight, opted to surrender rather than suffer the same fate.

"Wow…If I had known it would take that long, I would have fought him myself." Rhiona said.

"There was no reason for a lovely person like you to waste her skill on a joke like him." Meiga casually sheathed his sword. "It's only courteous that I fight him.

"I'm happy to see that you have a sense of chivalry as well as one of battle." She smiled at him, a slight hint of red on her cheeks. She supposed that it wouldn't be that bad having him around.

---

Meanwhile, Sarieth was busy telling the story about what had happened to him for the past few months to Abelia. She listened in earnest as he described the failed attempt by Dalkia to invade the country, and was somewhat shocked to hear about the causalities.

"I can't believe our army got slaughtered so badly…" She said somberly.

"Well, we weren't ready to fight just yet, and our quality is still a little on the….dull side." Sarieth could only shake his head. "We don't have a lot of veteran soldiers, most of us are lacking in battle experience, and this whole war thing can be overwhelming to someone, especially if they're thrust into the heat of battle." He paused. "Or it could be that they just really, really sucked at fighting…"

Abelia sighed. Sarieth either didn't understand or didn't care about the seriousness of that situation. "Well, I'm just glad you're okay." She said, not wanting to dwell on it for too long.

The group suddenly was faced with a split in the path they were walking on. Since they didn't have a map to help them along, and they didn't really want to leave any paths open for someone to try to sneak by them (as low a possibility as that was), they had to split up. Sarieth ordered Rhiona and Meiga to take the path to the left, while he and Abelia would continue with the current path. Out of desire not to hurt her new friend's feelings, Rhiona hesitantly complied (though it didn't stop her from giving her cousin a glare as she walked away).

The two captains continued down the path, relatively quiet for the most part, with the occasional comment from Sarieth about something they passed on the road, and Abelia's snarky remarks about the academy students back at home. It was obvious that the lack of actual combat was starting to get to them; they were both used to people coming out of nowhere to attack them, but since the forces were focusing primarily on that bridge, there was no imminent danger, so all they could do was take the long path to the stronghold and hope the others would bring back some good news…

Sarieth, feeling the need to break the monotony, suddenly spoke. "I've missed you, you know?" He told Abelia, who nearly fell to the ground in surprise from the spontaneous statement.

"You did?" She said. Even though they were friends, she had always assumed that Sarieth held some kind of grudge against her because of the special treatment she tended to get when they were both only students.

"Of course I did. It's not really the same waking up knowing that you wont be there to yell at me, complain about my work ethic or brag that you did better than me on a test or something." He snickered.

"Oh." Abelia sounded upset. "I thought you would be grateful to me kicking your lazy ass enough times to give you the motivation to succeed."

"Whatever you say…" Sarieth wasn't going to argue with her at this point, they were already getting close to the old bridge.

Upon reaching it, both captains found out that Eurydice was not exaggerating on the condition of the bridge. It was dilapidated in every sense of the word. There were gaps where floorboards should have been, the rope was barely holding the thing together, and right below them was a long fall into a river. All of this would eventually bring up the question:

"How in the hell are we supposed to get across it?"

They doubted that two people carrying swords and heavy armor was going to make it without falling to their doom, but they couldn't just turn back and go the other way, it would take way too long, and wouldn't really do that much good, even if they cut the ropes to insure that no one followed them.

"Maybe," Abelia said, "If we lighten our load, it would increase our chances of success."

"Good idea." Sarieth said. "Let's throw our weapons over the gap to the other side."

"Are you insane?! I'm not going to throw my father's weapons and have them fall into the river and wash away!" She held shield and sword possessively while giving her friend a glare. "Your sword is the heaviest! You throw it!"

"And how in the hell can I do that? It's way too heavy to go that far." Sarieth glowered for a bit.

"Maybe if we take off some of our armor…" Abelia said, mostly musing to herself. "It could be enough, but it could be a risk later."

"Believe me, the sight of you without armor would be worth it." A snicker leaked from his mouth.

Abelia couldn't help but turn red as she smacked him. "It's bad enough that I have to deal with your arrogance, don't turn into a pervert like Aeneas."

"I don't really know why you would think he's a pervert…"

"You know how he is with girls! He's probably the only one who's a bigger flirt than you! He…." A sudden realization came to her. "He's with Eurydice…oh no…."

"Stop worrying. Riese is with him, remember, she'll keep him in line." Sarieth stated.

"Oh? You seem to forget what happened that one time a while back between them…" Abelia started.

"Okay, stop. This isn't the time to be bringing up that incident." The boy looked at the old bridge. "I think we should just take our chances and try to get to the other side as quickly as possible."

They both gave a sigh. They didn't really have any options other than that. Sarieth, being the one who suggested it in the first place, went first. Taking a deep breath, he sprinted across the bridge, making sure not to hit any of the loose planks or anything. In a matter of seconds he was on the other side, safe and sound.

"See? Easy as pie." He said. "Now you try."

Abelia looked nervously at the bridge. It looked like it could fall apart the moment she stepped on it. "I don't know."

"Come on, you chicken!" Sarieth taunted. "All you need to do is cross the bridge once and that's it."

Abelia knew that she had to do it or else risk being teased by the Spada for the rest of her life. She took a deep breath, and started to run as fast as she could across the bridge. She had only made it halfway across when she tripped on a board and fell. It didn't seem to make the bridge any less stable, but it sent a chill through her. "Sarieth….I think I need your help…." She whimpered.

He was tempted to stand there and watch her squirm on the bridge, but time was of the essence. Placing his sword in the ground, he once again crossed the bridge to help her get up. "Okay, you big baby." He said as he helped her up. "Let's go."

Sarieth had just gotten Abelia on her feet when they heard a cracking noise. Apparently, the extra weight was all the bridge needed to collapse.

"Shit…." Sarieth scooped Abelia up in his arms and ran as fast as he could towards land. He could feel the bridge give way beneath his feet, but thankfully, they were close to the edge and quickly managed to get back on stable land. Looking back, he saw the last remains fall into the river below. Abelia, who had him in a death grip, regained her senses.

"You know, you can put me down now." She said, not wanting anyone to see her in this position. Her friend complied and unceremoniously dropped her on her butt. "Ouch! Damn it, Sarieth!"

"That's for punching me in the face." He said flatly. "Really, I never knew you were scared of heights."

"I'M NOT SCARED OF HEIGHTS!" She shouted. "I was just a little edgy."

"By the way you were holding on to me, I would say you were way past edgy."

"Why you…." Abelia stopped. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah, looks like someone's here to greet us." Sarieth took his sword out of the ground. In the distance was a man riding on a horse. "Looks like we'll have some action after all. Good, I was getting bored."

"Is fighting all you think about?" Abelia sighed.

Unbeknownst to them, the man that was coming toward them was no mere soldier. It was Roin, meaning they were about to face the leader of the entire Dalkian army.

---

Shikkoku: …..I wanted to get this done before the end of the year, and I barely made it, though it might say differently once it's actually posted.. Once again, any blame can go to my school, as I had to focus on that since I didn't do so good last semester.

And yes, I'll have to split this part of the story in two, because it took so long, and partly, because even if I did finish it, it would be the longest chapter yet, and it would look kinda awkward, especially at this point in the story.

Notes:

_Marta pretty much was a random idea that ended up making it to the story. He won't do much fighting though, for reasons that will be explained next chapter._

_I haven't played COTS in a while, so I guess I'll spend a day playing through the whole thing once again while I'm on break and see if I can come up with some new ideas._

_No PS3 and No SCIV makes Shikkoku a very dull boy…._

If you've read my profile, you'll know that I'm going to finish off another story of mine, so the next part of this chapter won't come for a while, so be patient. I'm not the type to completely abandon a story, because I know it irritates you when someone does that, and I feel the same way too.

Next Chapter: Sarieth and Abelia fight Roin, Eurydice and the others try to prevent soldiers from taking over a bridge, and a few people make the severe tactical error of pissing off Kalent, who proceeds to make them regret it.

Until Next Time, Happy New Year, and Sayonara.


	9. Grandall, Dalkia, and the Bridge Part 2

Disclaimer: All you see here belong to the almighty forces at Namco Bandai, except for the original creations, which belong to yours truly.

Nope, you're not seeing things…this is a new chapter.

---

Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

Chapter 9: Grandall, Dalkia, and the Bridge: Part 2

---

Sarieth and Abelia both looked on as Roin got off of his horse. Abelia gave her fellow captain a concerned look, but he just shrugged in response.

"Well, you must be the person who defeated Luna." Roin sized up the young man in front of him, "And he's just a boy? I see we're not the only one using kids as soldiers here."

"Uh, I'm nineteen, so I'm no kid." Sarieth corrected, "And that girl was under _your _direction?"

"Hmph, I wish. If that was the case she would have probably won the fight. I'm surprised that you were the one to beat her, though. From what I heard, your little unit was the one that pushed our forces back and caused them to retreat. While Aeron wasn't the most brilliant tactician in our group, the fact that he was defeated so easily by you a team of rookies is astounding."

"Don't forget that he got beaten by a girl." Sarieth grinned at the memory, "Either way, that's what he got for being overconfident." The younger soldier said, "So, are you going to fight, or are you going to make the same mistake that he did?"

"Sarieth, be careful!" Abelia knew that her friend's ego was starting to get the better of him. "I don't think he's going to be an easy opponent."

"So? They're all the same, Abelia." Sarieth spun his sword till it was positioned at his side, "This will be over soon enough…"

"Yes. For you." Roin grabbed his lance and prepared himself for battle. "For my queen's sake, I will defeat you."

"Good. Now, if you're done making empty threats, let's get started."

As usual, Sarieth rushed to attack with no real plan of how to defeat him. As Abelia watched her friend try to get past the obvious reach advantage that Roin's lance gave him, she started to wonder how much he had changed since his days at the academy. Sometimes Sarieth seemed like he was maturing a bit, but then he does something stupid and her expectations fall like a rock.

At the moment, however, he was doing well. Sarieth was ducking the swings of his opponent's lance easily, while being decisive about what attacks he hit him with. _"If he used the lance like Girardot or Aeneas does, then this should be an easy win." _Sarieth spun around and attacked with his sword, but it was blocked. _"His defenses will wear down eventually. I just know-"_

His thoughts were interrupted when Roin jammed the blunt end of his lance into Sarieth's stomach. While there was armor covering that area, the blow still caused a major jolt to him, distracting him enough for Roin to attack freely. The side of his lance collided with his side with a crack as it hit the armor.

"Damn it!" He seethed. Despite the protection, a sharp pain still went through the side of his body. He held fast, however, and continued his attack. Unfortunately for him, Roin fought differently from other lance users he faced; thusly most of his strategies weren't working.

"Take this!" Sarieth tried to come down for a strike, but Roin used his lance to lift him off the ground and help him deliver a hard kick right into his chest, knocking him down to the ground.

"That's just sad. I don't know who I pity more, you or Luna for losing to such a weak fighter." Roin stood over him ominously. "Hopefully this isn't all you have to offer."

Sarieth gritted his teeth as he tried to figure out a new strategy to beat the man before him. He needed more time to figure out his style.

"Don't you realize that I'm only getting started?" Sarieth rolled back to his feet. He had to be serious about this or else he'll lose. "I'll make you eat those words….

---

Back at the Whelsdat Bridge, Eurydice, Riese and Aeneas battled their way across the bridge in an attempt to secure it. The battle was one of the fiercest they had faced in a long time, these guys weren't pushovers like the others; they truly were ready and willing to kill everyone in order to accomplish their mission. Fortunately for them, they were getting the upper hand.

"Gotcha!" Eurydice swung her sword around in a wide arc, taking out three men at once. This being her first real taste of actual battle, she was both excited yet scared at the same time. Everything was moving so fast, the moment one person fell, another one took their place. As much as she wanted to be careful, she needed to dispatch them as fast as she could.

Eurydice was starting to get tired, but her will continued to push her forward. "Hey, is everything okay back were you're at?!"

"Yeah, everything's fine…" Riese, the only person of the group that lacked armor, had gotten a minor injury on her right arm, but it was only a mere scratch, and all that did was make her even more determined to win. She had just finished one person when a female soldier attempted tried to attack her from behind. She raised her weapon to strike, but before she could, one of Riese's wave swords penetrated through her chainmail right into her midsection.

"Nice try, loser." With amazing efficiency, Riese tore through the poor girl in a matter of seconds, and she fell to the ground bleeding as Riese moved on to the next person, her attempt to ease up on her reckless behavior long forgotten.

"Try to keep it under control!" Aeneas shouted before she got too into the fight. He himself was having a slightly easier time with the assault due to the amount of space he could make with his lance, but he still took his fair share of attacks. He had just gotten a little break from the constant fighting when he saw that one person was approaching Eurydice from behind while she was just done fighting another soldier.

"Watch out!" Aeneas shouted. He swung the lance right at the attacker. The force of the hit was enough to send that person flying off of the bridge.

"Thank you, Aeneas." Eurydice watched as he fell to the water, "You saved me back there."

"It's no problem..."

Riese's roar interrupted them both as yet another person was rammed right against one of the pillars that lined the sides of the bridge. She gave the man a fierce punch to her stomach, and he slumped to the ground.

"How many more of these losers we have to face?" She shouted.

"I think that was it." Eurydice relaxed a bit as they went over the area, which was now littered with the fallen Dalkian troops. "It seems as if any other soldiers that were planning to attack us are retreating to the main stronghold, along with the ones here that are still conscious."

"Hey! Get back here!" Riese shouted, "Why are you running away like a bunch of cowards?!"

Aeneas grabbed her before he could start running away, "Don't provoke them, stupid! We still need to secure the other side of that bridge!"

Riese thrashed under her friend's grip. "I don't care! I was just getting into this fight and now they're going to retreat! I hate that!"

"Calm down! It's over now, okay?" Aeneas held her tight. Eventually, Riese finally calmed long enough for him to let go.

"Sorry…" Riese looked embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it." Aeneas gave her a playful knock on the head, "But now that we've gotten that out of the way, what are we going to do with all of the people. We have about five soldiers that are knocked out."

"Couldn't we just throw them off of the bridge?" Riese asked.

Eurydice shook her head. "There's a proper and less sadistic way to deal with this, you know, Just take away their weapons and tie them up when we get to the stronghold. Once Sarieth and Abelia get done, we'll let them go and they'll retreat back to their country."

"Yeah, yeah…" Riese and Aeneas started to gather the weapons from their fallen enemies as Eurydice went towards the post at the other side of the bridge to claim the stronghold as their own, happy that her first mission was a success.

---

Lupi kicked open the door to the dining area, causing everyone present to jump in their seats.

"We're here, everyone." She said as her and the others (Heal-Do, Aege, Eula, Marta and Kalent) all walked in behind her. "Where's the cook at?"

"Oh dear, it's those girls again." One person said as they passed by their table, "And it looks like they brought Marta and some new kid with them too."

"Hopefully we won't have another brawl here."

"There won't be if you keep your mouth shut." Eula threatened, which shut up the two men real quick.

A cook emerged from a door in the back of the building. "I should have known it was you guys." He sighed.

"Don't worry; we're just here to eat." Heal-Do assured the man.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess it's the usual for you all, I assume." He continued, "Wait, who's the kid there?"

"This kid here is our newest teammate." Lupi said, "So he'll be getting the same thing we get, of course."

"You're the boss, I guess. Just don't harass the customers this time, alright?" He went into the back to start cooking. Everybody sat down at a table.

"So then, I finally got to meet you, Kalent." Marta started, "From what I've have heard, you're pretty ruthless. Did you really kill one of your own soldiers?"

"Uh….It's a long story." Kalent decided to change the subject. "Anyway, I'm curious about your story. Why are you stuck in this town instead of fighting with the rest of us?"

Marta shook his head, "It's pretty simple. Eula and I go back a long way, and when she went to the military academy, I was right behind her, all the way. We graduated, and went to battle. It was all pretty simple, and we did a pretty damn good job of it. Everything was going fine until I got badly injured in an ambush."

"Really? What happened?"

"Eh…I don't really remember much of it. Some people burst into the stronghold we were staying in and caught us off guard. I remember a few things, like trying to fight them off, but I got attacked from behind. The last thing I remember is lying on the ground and someone stabbing me in the shoulder with a sword before I passed out."

"When I woke up, the first thing I saw was Eula's face. She explained to me that I was one of the survivors of that incident. I managed to get out alive, but I was messed up pretty badly, enough that I couldn't fight. I was sent home to recover, and before I knew it, Eula was sent to stay with you girls."

"Wow, that's a story." Kalent said, "But you don't look too bad now."

"I'm more or less healed; I just have a couple of scars. The problem is that…" Marta stopped for a few seconds, "Let's just say that there were a lot of changes in the leadership of the army that happened during the time I was recovering and leave it at that."

"What Marta means is that Roin didn't want him returning to active duty," Eula said bitterly, "The asshole thinks he's a liability to others, especially this group."

"Technically, we shouldn't even be visiting him," Heal-Do added, "Roin doesn't know that he's here, and if he did, he could use our relationship with him as a tool to exercise more control over us."

"So he doesn't think highly about any of you?" Kalent asked, and the rest of them shook their heads.

"We're generally surprised that he recommended that you joined this group. I thought you were sent here as some kind of punishment." Lupi said.

Kalent scratched his head. From the sound of things, the relation between the Klessirpemdo and the rest of the Dalkian military wasn't exactly the closest.

"You didn't seem to care too much when he came over to give Luna the order to go into Grandall." He stated.

"He's our superior. We can't really do anything, or else he'll probably try and get this group broken up. Our queen has always acknowledged our skills, but Roin has a bigger influence on her than you may think."

Kalent resisted the urge to roll his eyes and briefly thought about telling them the extent to Roin's 'relationship' with Queen Auriela, but decided against it.

----

_*CLASH!*_

Sarieth continued to put everything that he had into fighting Roin, and while he had landed a hit or two, he wasn't making much headway.

"You're going to tire yourself out if you keep going like this," Roin asked as he deflected another attack. "There's no chance that you'll win, so why not just surrender?"

"No." Sarieth stated firmly.

He jumped up into the air and attempted to wedge his sword into Roin's head, but the older man simply swatted him back down to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

"I see now why you were able to defeat Luna," Roin crept closer, "You're probably one of the few people who's more stubborn than she is."

"I guess that's something you have right about me…" Sarieth said as he attempted to get up, but Roin pushed him back down with the end of his lance.

"But it still wasn't enough. It takes more than sheer willpower to win a war, kid. If that was the case, then almost anyone could do it. Strategy, cunning and an ability to think ahead of your enemies are necessary as well, and that's something you lack dearly." He pointed the sharp end of the lance towards Sarieth's back. "Let's see….One good thrust here should do it…"

Before Roin could inflict any fatal blow on the heir, there was a flash and he instinctively went on the defensive.

"I'm sorry, but you still have to deal with me." Abelia said, "I won't let you harm my friend like this."

"You? I wouldn't be surprised if you did. Now beating me, on the other hand, won't be as easy."

Abelia gritted her teeth as she hoisted her sword and attacked... Roin was surprised at the girl's tenacity, and that surprised helped her as she assaulted him with a series of attacks, completely taking advantage of the fact that he had to adapt to a different type of weapon so quickly. She attacked viciously, not giving Roin the space or opportunity to try and respond to the situation.

"Miserable brat, stand still!" Roin also had difficulty with Abelia's speed, which made it harder to target her, especially with such an unwieldy weapon. Every time he swung his lance, she seemed to either duck it or it doesn't even come near her.

"Hiya!" Abelia dodged a swing of the lance, and struck a critical blow to somewhere right below his ribcage. At that point it was apparent that Roin _wasn't_ wearing chainmail under those clothes.

He grimaced at the feeling of blood running down his side, but through that pain his mind conjured up a plan that could help him regain the advantage. He fell to one knee and clutched at his side, trying to stem the blood loss.

"See? That didn't take long, now did it?" Abelia turned to her fallen friend. "How are you doing, Sarieth? Did you finally get some of that arrogance beaten out of you? "

"Be quiet, Abelia." Sarieth mumbled. He was still in a daze from being hit to the ground so suddenly. "You're not helping the situation by mocking me."

"Hmph." She pointed her broadsword at Roin as she approached him; however, she was a bit too lax in her guard, as she would soon find out.

"So, are you ready to surrender?" Abelia addressed him, "I can assure you will be better off if you do."

"Actually, I have an even better idea…"Suddenly, he grabbed his lance and jammed it into Abelia's stomach, below her chest armor. The force was enough to send her crumbling to the ground.

_Damn! How could I make such a horrible mistake!_ Abelia said as she writhed and struggled to get back on her feet, _I should have seen it coming…._

Roin harshly grabbed her by the hair and lifted him to his face. "You foolish girl…" He said in a calm tone, "You might have a slight advantage with your weapon, but you are no match for someone with my experience. The fact that you fell for my trap certainly attests to that. What is your country thinking, sending rookies to fight against hardened veterans?"

"Let her go!" Sarieth shouted, struggling to get back to his feet. "Do it or I swear I'll kill you right now."

He got an incredulous look in response. "Are you kidding? You really think you can kill me in the condition you are in?"

"Try me." Sarieth grabbed his sword and stood up fully.

"Heh, alright then, kid." He threw Abelia to the ground. "I'll show you no mercy."

Sarieth smiled, but his mind was desperately going through his options when it came to defeating the lance user. His heavy sword put him at a serious disadvantage speed wise, since the length of the lance more than made up for its heaviness. He had given his katana to Meiga and he didn't really have any other weapons at the moment. His eyes shifted to Abelia's fallen form….

_I…I think I might have an idea, _a smile slowly started to form on his face. _Hopefully this works._

A few seconds later, Sarieth and Roin went at each other again. Despite Roin's injury, he and Sarieth were still fairly even. Sarieth, however, knew that Roin's frustration was preventing him from noticing that he was being led on. As they fought, Sarieth gradually shifted his positions towards Abelia, until his back was facing her.

Once he was at that point, Sarieth purposely let Roin overpower him and pretended to lose his footing a bit, and he discreetly picked up the sword and hid it in an empty hilt. _Now, all I have to do is wait for the right time to strike…_

"You haven't learned anything at all from last time, have you?!" Roin started taking walking backwards for a bit before stopping. He planned on charging straight at him, confident that he would impale him with his lance. "I expected better from you, but I guess I'm allowed to be wrong every once and a while."

Sarieth quickly dodged the lance, pulled out the broadsword and slashed upwards. He did it with such force that he nearly lost grip of the sword, but it was enough to leave a massive wound on Roin's chest. The Dalkian soldier stumbled to the ground seconds later, holding his now-bleeding chest.

"How'd you like that!" Sarieth said confidently, standing over his fallen opponent, who just gave him a dirty look. "Didn't I say I'd make sure you regret it? Huh?"

"…Okay…you got me…." Roin doubted that he could fight with a wound like that without it killing him. "As much as I hate to admit it, we lost."

"Sir!" A cadet shouted from the nearby stronghold, "Our troops have been totally defeated! The mission to take over the bridge is a failure!"

Roin sighed. He could see the other troops were retreating in the distance. There was no point in proceeding any longer. "Feh, how embarrassing. Then again, I should have expected this result with the low level idiots they gave me."

Slowly getting up, he whistled for his horse, which immediately came to his side.

"Well then, I guess this is it for now, but don't worry, we will meet again, I'll assure you of that." Roin slowly got on his horse and started to ride away. By the looks of it, they were retreating, and thus, their mission was a success.

"Damn, that was a tough battle." Sarieth moved his arms and neck to get some of the kinks worked out. With the battle over, the pain started to really present itself on his body. Wincing at the pain in his hand, he walked back to where Abelia was lying at.

_I'll admit, you really saved my hide back there_. Sarieth knelt over her. She wasn't too badly injured. _Thank you, Abelia. You have my gratitude._

Sarieth lifted her up into his arms. She was still knocked out, thankfully enough, or he wouldn't have heard the end of it from her. It was just about that time that Rhiona and Meiga appeared; their two paths merging at this very point.

"What happened to Abelia?" Rhiona said.

"She'll be okay, don't worry about it." He assured her, "We ran into some trouble, but it's taken care of for the moment."

"Just one, but we took care of him easily." Meiga answered, "So, what's the progress on our mission?"

"It's a success, more or less. The Dalkian troops are retreating, and their stronghold seems to have been emptied out, so it's more or less a done deal at this point. All we need to do is meet up with the others, heal up and continue on."

"Okay, let's go, I guess." Rhiona felt a little underwhelmed at the lack of any real fighting during their time. "I wish we could have gotten a little more action though."

"Ugh, I think I gotten enough of that to last for a while…" Sarieth groaned.

"That's something I thought I would never hear from your mouth, Sarieth Spada." Rhiona giggled.

"Whatever, let's go." Sarieth said as they headed towards the stone structure a few miles away.

---

"That was great." Lupi said excitedly as they left the inn. "He certainly outdid himself this time."

"Probably because he didn't want another repeat of the last time we were here." Eula said, "I'd wished those people would stop leering at us, though."

"Either way, we better get back home soon and prepare ourselves for the bad mood that Luna is going to be in when she returns." Lupi reminded them.

But before they could do anything, the Klessirpemdo found themselves in front of an angry mob, one that had been waiting all day to get a shot at them.

"Oh crap…" Marta said under his breath. "We definitely don't need this."

"What do you guys want?"

"So, we heard that your leader finally got some of that arrogance beaten out of her." The supposed leader of the group said. "So seeing as your group isn't so high and mighty anymore, I think now's a good time to extract some revenge for, don't you think?"

"Really? In that case…" Lupi was willing to fight, but Kalent quickly stood in front of her.

"Let me handle this." He said plainly. "There's no reason you need to waste your energy on these guys."

The idea of finally seeing Kalent actually do some fighting gained her interest. "Okay, Star of Heaven; let's see what you can do."

Kalent walked up to the mob, making sure that he still had his dagger with him. "Now then, what's the problem?"

"Why are you…?" The man stopped short as a look of realization dawned on his face, "Hey, you're that Kalent, aren't you?"

Kalent blinked. He didn't know he was that known in this country. "Yeah, that's me…"

"You're the kid that got sent with those girls after you went berserk on your own squad, right?"

"That's a pretty bad exaggeration of what happened…" Kalent wanted to sigh. "Putting that aside, I suggest you and your little crew of hoodlums start spreading out as soon as possible, or things are going to get ugly. It's not a wise idea to go up against trained soldiers."

The man grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "We've had enough of your group coming here and acting like you can do whatever you want because you're so high up in rank in the army! Your leader killed one of our townspeople and the military didn't even bat an eye at it! So since that idiot in charge of your group thinks that it's perfectly fine to let you run roughshod as long as you people win him battles wherever you go, it's up to us to teach you a little humility.

"Really now..."

In the blink of an eye, Kalent grabbed his dagger and plunged it right into the man's arm. Expectedly, he dropped the young soldier and started screaming in pain.

"Oh no, I seemed to have accidently stuck my blade in your arm." Kalent said with mock concern. "Please, let me get that out for you." He grabbed it by the handle and proceeded to twist it around for a few seconds, damaging the arm as much as he could before finally taking it out.

_I guess this explains how he got into this group._ Marta cringed as he saw a puddle of blood grow from the mysterious man's mangled arm. Aege cringed at the sight, and Heal-Do turned away, but Lupi and Eula where actually cheering at Kalent's violent actions.

"I suggest you hurry off now, lest that wound gets infected." Kalent waved him off. "It's a little too early in the day for me to be murdering people."

"Why you…" Another person pushed through the crowd to attack him. Kalent simply dodged the punch, and slashed him across the face.

"My eye!" Kalent watched as the man started fumbling around as he held his newly scarred face and laughed.

"Yeah, might want to get something to cover your eye once that heals up." He looked back at the rest of the group, who suddenly wasn't as intense as they were a few moments ago. "So, have I gotten through to you yet, or do I need to make examples out of a few more people?"

Obviously, they knew that the odds of any success were nil, so the mob quickly dispersed, not even bothering to retrieve the injured men. The rest of the townspeople quickly resumed their own duties, not really wanting to stir up anymore chaos.

Kalent sighed contently as he and the others quickly left for Marta's place.

"That was great, Kalent!" Lupi said excitedly when they entered the building, "I never seen someone so skilled with a dagger…"

"Er…thanks." Getting compliments for being violent was something Kalent hadn't gotten used to yet. "To be honest, I usually fight with a sword, but it shattered a month before I joined the group."

"Really? If that's the case I think I might be able to help you with that." Marta went over to a pile of old weapons and pulled out a long, thin sword. "I got this a few weeks ago. It seems to be in somewhat decent shape. Do you want to use it?"

Kalent looked at the sword. It was a little dull, but he could work on it when he got back. "Wow, that looks pretty good."

"Since you're part of the group, I'll let you have it for free." Marta handed the sword to him, "It's only fair, Kalent."

"Thank you very much." After actually holding the sword, he started feeling more confident about using it. "A few fixes and it'll be perfect."

"Cool. Now then if you excuse us, Eula and I need to talk for a little bit. Feel free to hang out here for the time being."

"Please make it quick, you two." Lupi said, "I don't want to be here all day while you have your little make-out session."

"LUPI!"

"Ah, don't get upset Eula. The poor girl just wishes that she could talk to a guy without having them scream and run away in the opposite direction all the time."

"Why you…!" Aege and Heal-Do held her down. Marta and Eula laughed as they went up a flight of stairs. "He makes me so mad sometimes!"

As the other girls tried to calm the fiery girl down, Kalent sat down on a bench on the other side of the room, lost in his own thoughts about what just happened.

_Maybe I went a little too far that time. No, they certainly deserved every bit of it. I need to stop questioning my actions; that could be dangerous._ Kalent shook his head. _I guess I've been away from battle for too long. Judging from what I hear, I'll be fighting again soon enough._

Staring at his sword, a grim smile formed on his face. _Hopefully that will be sooner than later…I can't wait to break this thing in…_

---

"I must say that I'm a little disappointed…."

Luna had just returned from the failed invasion attempt at Grandall when Queen Auriela summoned her to her chambers. Still suffering from the embarrassment of losing to Sarieth, she had been very testy for most of the day, glaring and yelling at everyone that even looked at her incorrectly. However, in front of her queen she stood there silently.

"Of course, I'm only _a little _disappointed. I understand the fact that one person can't win every battle, you know." Auriela said calmly as she sat in her massive chair... "I'd much prefer to have one of my best soldiers here right now after a loss than hearing a report about her getting killed because she wouldn't allow herself to accept defeat. The fact that you managed to do that is surprising, considering how stubborn you are."

Luna's eyes narrowed a bit that her last sentence, but she remained quiet.

"What I don't get is how you could have been beaten by a bunch of newcomers. I supposed that whoever is training them must have a very strict regimen if it's the point that even the greenest of cadets can take on an army and win."

Auriela started to toy with her sickle. "Luna, it looks like you'll be fighting again real soon. All things considered, it's only right that we send a few forces to fight off Grandall as they make their way into our soil, and I'm making it so that the Klessirpemdo is at the head of them. I'm sure that you'll be getting another shot at the person who defeated you real soon."

The young girl nodded, but inside she was filled with glee at the chance to get her revenge. Auriela stood up and started walking towards her till she was standing right in front of her. She reached out to Luna and toyed with her hair for a bit.

"Just make sure that you don't make this losing thing a habit…" She told her sternly. "Do I make myself clear?"

Luna swallowed her pride and responded with, "Yes, your majesty."

"Good. You may go."

Luna bowed and exited the room. As she slowly made her way out of the palace, the feeling of embarrassment started to emerge yet again, but Luna pressed those thoughts down. Now wasn't the time to let that memory haunt her. She would have her chance at payback soon enough.

---

Shikkoku: I really hate having to apologize so often, but I'm really sorry. It was never my intention to take so long for me to update this. As for the reason for the wait, basically I spent a good amount of this year finishing up one of my other stories, which ended up taking _**way**_ longer than I had thought it would be. By time I did finish it, it was a few days before school started back up, so that provided another problem for me, as I tried to write this chapter while being held up with assignments and other stuff. I know that I use the school excuse a lot, but most of the time that is really the case, especially with me being in college and all of that.

I'm not going to say that I'm going to start updating this on a regular basis now, but I have a bit more time to spend with this now than at the beginning of the year, so I'm going to attempt to put this thing back on track. Maybe have it done by next year, but that's probably a long shot...

Notes:

_I added a scene with Rhiona and Meiga in the last chapter. I was going to add it in this one, but I thought it felt a bit awkward and decided that it would be better off in the other chapter._

_Kalent's little fight was probably a little much, but it's supposed to so how little regard he's starting to have for human life after being in the military for so long._

_I'm considering raising the rating, but I highly doubt it will happen anytime soon._

_Once we get to Halteese, expect the storyline to waver slightly from the game's. Only slightly, though._

In other news, I really need to sit down and contemplate a new name for this story. I thought it would be unique, but now it just sounds stupid. Another one of those 'what was I thinking?' things, I guess. As always, review if you can.

Next Chapter: Kalent is tasked with a solo mission to Halteese, which ends up being very bad timing for him, since the rest of the Klessirpemdo have to go up against Sarieth and his unit, who are slowly making their way through Dalkia.

Until Next Time, Sayonara…


	10. The Burning Moon

Disclaimer: ….I don't own Soul Calibur, they are a property of Namco and all of that good stuff.

Hello, everyone. It's been what, nearly a year since the last chapter? Sorry about the long wait, but here we are. Now, without further ado…

* * *

Tsurugi no Kirokusuru

Chapter 10: The Burning Moon

* * *

Hours after the battle had ended, Abelia let out a small moan as she slowly opened her eyes_. _ She didn't remember what had happened, except that Roin had knocked her out in her attempt to keep him from killing Sarieth. After getting her eyes adjusted to the night sky, she noticed that they were far from the Whelsdat Bridge; now the unit was camping out at a forested area. It was late, and everyone was sleeping. Abelia saw her sword and shield lying next to her, along with her armor. She was merely in her plainclothes outfit that she wore under all of that stuff.

"W-where in the world am I?" Her voice came out weaker than it should be.

"In the middle of the forest, silly." Sarieth answered from right behind her. Most of his armor was gone as well; he was dressed in the causal outfit she often saw him in when he was off-duty.

"More particularly, we're officially in Dalkian territory, a few hours away from the bridge." He continued as he sat next to her, "I don't really have a clue where we are going right now, but I think we're on the path to the capital."

"How long was I out for?"

"Quite a while, actually. I had to carry your ass all this way, so you should be grateful. You don't really have much damage, but Riese wrapped your ribs up, just to be safe. That was a pretty bad blow you took."

Abelia noticed the slight pain in her midsection as she tried to sit up, but it was barely noticeable anymore. The memory of the incident with Roin slowly started to come back to her, and her mood darkened. "I can't believe I made such a terrible mistake."

"What are you talking about? You didn't…"

"I nearly got myself killed because I got too careless." She said, "As a soldier of my caliber, I'm expected to act more tactfully than what I did."

"'_Your caliber'? _So I'm guessing that you're going to say that was the type of irrational decision that I usually make?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. "I don't know…I just feel so embarrassed. I should have been helping you fight him, not taking him on by myself so I can look like a hero..."

"It's okay. To be honest, it's my own fault for getting in that situation in the first place. You just did what you felt you had to do in order to protect me. There's no reason for you to be ashamed. I think we both underestimated him a little bit. Don't let it get to you."

Abelia nodded. "Thank you, Sarieth. I sincerely owe you…."

"No need for that, Abelia. You helped me, I helped you, and now we're even. Just because you and I are 'rivals' in a way doesn't mean I wouldn't hesitate to kill anybody that even thinks of hurting you." Sarieth got up and stretched. "It's pretty late, so get some sleep. We're going to be doing some serious traveling tomorrow."

Abelia sighed a bit and laid back down, slowly drifted off back to sleep. Sarieth couldn't help but look at her a few seconds before he went back to his post. Something in the back of his mind was eating at him, but Sarieth didn't pay it no mind. All that mattered to him was finding Kalent.

* * *

Luna sighed contently for the first time in days as she sat in her bath. Her body was sore after who knows how many hours of intense training, and she needed to relax before she ended up hurting herself. The other girls were busy going through the motions of day to day life: Lupi and Elua argued, Heal-Do was either reading or playing chess with Aege, and Kalent either was with them or in his quarters sleeping the day away, as usual. Luna had chosen to separate herself from her friends for the moment, as she needed some time to think.

There was still a part of her that was still bitter about her loss to Sarieth, but as time passed, she slowly started to realize that maybe it was a bit of her own fault. She was one of Dalkia's best soldiers, and ever since she was paired up with the other girls that made up her group, she found that the challenge she faced from her enemies were paltry at best. Luna had let herself be complacent with the stream of weak opponents, and severely underestimated Sarieth, which ended up being her undoing.

"I should have remembered what they taught me about being too overconfident…" She mumbled as she sank further into the tub. She could almost hear the voices of the officers yelling at her; Her teachers were never tolerant of failure, and she had paid the price for that many, many times. Luna refused to let those thoughts consume her, and made an effort to focus her mind on other things. Like Kalent.

When she heard about his little 'incident' a few weeks ago, she couldn't help but be impressed. He had quite the mean streak in him, and that's exactly what he hoped for. Lately, she's been helping him get accustomed to his new sword. While he seemed to have a basic grasp of swordplay, Kalent didn't really have much of a grasp of proper technique. So she tried to assist him…

* * *

"_Do you mind telling me why we're doing this again?" Kalent asked as Luna dragged him out into the training area._

"_Because you need to work on your performance! It's sloppy and crude; you'll never be able to last long in the heat of battle with those types of skills."_

"_**Unrefined?**__ Are you kidding me? This is the style I was trained to use, and it's worked out for me so far. Why wouldn't it do anything now?"_

"_Because you were facing weaklings who could barely swing a stick properly. The forces you're facing now are people with skill and intelligence. Since I doubt you have much of the latter, I have to make sure you're ready and prepared for battle." Luna shoved him to the battle area. "I know that you are somewhat good with this, but I want more than just 'good' out of you. But before I can tell what needs working on, I'll need to fight you for a bit."_

"…_.what?"_

"_Fight. Me. Is that so hard for you to understand?"_

_Kalent could see nothing good coming out of this, but since he wasn't in a position to refuse her, there was really anything that he could do._

"_Fine." He took out his brand new sword and made sure his dagger was at his side if he needed it. "But don't assume that this will be easy."_

_**Five minutes later…**_

"_That __**was**__ actually pretty easy." Luna dusted off her clothes while Kalent lay on the ground, too exhausted to come up with a proper reply. Luna was a bit faster than he expected, but the problem wasn't that, it was Luna and her annoying ability to block or counter any attack he tried to do, all of which usually left him open for some of her own. That and her annoying habit of leaping around the place, sometimes even landing on his head. Needless to say, it was a very one-sided match._

"_You're pretty good for someone who uses such a sloppy technique." Luna leaned over to get a better look at her beaten opponent. "But still, it needs a bit of work if you're going to face these soldiers."_

"_What makes them any different from the Halteese losers that I've been fighting before?"_

"_For one thing, the Grandall soldiers are said to have been taught by Girardot himself," Luna stated ominously, as if his name alone would strike Kalent with unimaginable terror. When it was obvious that Kalent wasn't reacting as such, she continued, "He's one of the best tacticians in that country, it's obvious that Grandall has a far better understanding of how to approach us than Halteese does. And much more importantly, their soldiers are way more aggressive."_

"_Aggressive, huh? Is that why they beat you?" Kalent remarked, and was rewarded with a hard kick to the ribs. "Gah!"_

"_As I was saying, you're going to have to make some serious changes to your fighting style before you think of going into a battlefield again." She said firmly, "It's my responsibility to make sure you don't get yourself killed."_

"_So what are you suggesting, Luna? That I start learning your fighting style? I'm sorry if I don't look or act enthusiastic, but I don't think that I have the stamina to jump around all over the place like you do."_

"_You don't have to do all of that, idiot. Just follow my instructions and you'll before you know it, you'll almost be as good as me."_

"_Or I'll be dead."_

"_Well, that is a risk I'm willing to take. Now get up." Luna kicked him again, Kalent groaned as he finally got to his feet._

"_I think we have time for one more fight. Why don't you try and hit me this time, Star of Heaven? En Garde!"  


* * *

_

"It all turned out for the better, thankfully." Luna said as she sank further into the tub. With her teachings, Kalent seemed to have a better grasp on his skills than he did before, and he was a pretty quick learner at that, since now he could stand his own against her for a good while before she completely wrecked him and left him lying unconscious on the ground.

On the whole, she couldn't help but admit that she was starting to like his presence in the group. When she initially heard that they were adding another member to her unit, she was apprehensive at the idea of someone disrupting the dynamic of the team she worked hard to achieve. When Luna found out it was a _guy_ joining a group, she was even more apprehensive at the thought of some sleazebag going around making passes at her and her friends. But Kalent seemed to fit in quite well, thankfully. Lupi and the others seemed to be very fond of him, and he was respectful and still have enough aggression as to not hold the unit back. To be very honest, Luna herself was warming up to him, though she'd never admit it to anyone.

The sound of knocking startled Luna out of her blissful state. "Damn it all, what do they want?" The rule usually was that no one was allowed to bother her during this time unless it was absolutely important, so she was assuming that this was some significant news.

"Luna, are you in here?" Kalent's slightly sleepy voice came from the other side of the door. "Someone's here to see you."

"Yeah, alright. Just give me a second!" Luna said a bit louder than she had intended. She could almost hear Kalent backing away from the door in fear. She quickly got out of the tub and dried herself off.

Kalent was waiting impatiently outside the door for Luna to answer. At the moment, Roin had arrived in the main room and he didn't look very happy. Kalent had heard about the failed attempt at capturing the Whelsdat Bridge, and once again, he suspected that his brother had gotten involved. At this point, their meeting would be inevitable and Kalent couldn't help but feel wary about that fact, but he tried to keep his mind off that for the time being and focused on the situation at hand right now.

Luna opened the door slowly. "What was so important that you had to bother me, Kalent?"

"Well, Captain Roin is…uh…" It took Kalent a while to notice the rather 'stripped down' appearance of Luna. "Um…"

Thankfully, Luna was more interested about her captain than why her officer was stuttering. "What is it? Roin is down there doing what to my squad?"

_You moron, get yourself together before she thinks you're leering at her! _Kalent quickly regained his composure. "Captain Roin is downstairs with the others. He wants all of us to get there before he starts speaking."

Luna started to snicker, "I can't believe he chose to show his face around here…" "Just give me a second; I'll be down there to laugh in his face shortly." She closed the door.

Kalent held his face in his hands and let out a long breath. Being the only boy in an house full of girls could be a pain sometimes.

* * *

Five minutes later, Luna bounced down the stairs into a room thick with tension. The other girls seemed to go on with their regular routine, but Roin's presence seemed to make them uncomfortable and irritated. She could see Lupi glaring at him whenever Roin wasn't looking while she watched the others play chess. Nobody really liked him around, but they usually let Luna air their grievances for the rest of them.

"It's been a long time, Luna." Roin noted the rather disheveled look, "And I see you're just as arrogant as ever, even after your loss."

"Yeah, yeah, it's nice to see you too, loser." Luna gave him a lazy salute, "It's too bad too, I was hoping that you would have had some of that pompousness knocked out of you by now." She

"That was only a minor setback. I suppose it's my punishment for relying on third-rate soldiers for important assignments like that one." Roin knew that Luna was going to mock him about his failure till the cows came home, so he decided to change the subject. "Anyway, the reason I'm here is because our queen has been doing some planning lately, and is requesting that Kalent accompany her to Halteese Republic, along with myself."

"You want Kalent to come with you? Why?"

"While it's not exactly anything you and your unit need to be concern about, I will say that we are in talks with a newly formed nation. If this plan works out, then there's the chance that our battle with Halteese could soon be at an end."

"Really?" Kalent couldn't help but be confused. A newly formed nation? Who would do such a thing in the middle of a war? "I suppose that could be a benefit, especially if it will give us time to focus on Grandall."

"That's right. End the conflict with one nation so we can put more resources into fighting the other." Roin stated, "But before we can do that, the Queen must meet with the King to agree to the terms. Unfortunately, the new country is requires us to travel through Halteese, it is imperative that she be protected from any would be assassins. And that's why you have been asked to come along with us."

"Okay…" Kalent scratched his head. Obviously as someone "So basically it's a body guard mission, right? That shouldn't be an issue, especially if it'll put an end to this war."

"Hey, what about us?" Luna was started to get frustrated. "You can't just take him away like that!"

"You don't seem to understand your position, but that will be overlooked, seeing as there's something you're probably interested in, Luna." Roin continued, "We've been getting reports about a Grandall unit headed towards the old barricade that blocks one of the paths to Revless, and I have an idea of who's leading that group."

The very thought about who Roin was implying made her heart leap. If it was who she thought it was, she could finally repay him for humiliating her. Kalent, on the other hand, couldn't decide if him not being there was a blessing or another missed opportunity.

"If you want a chance to redeem yourself, you may have your chance." Roin continued, "Try not and disappoint Aurelia again by losing." He smirked as he watched Luna resist the urge to smack him. "Kalent, be outside in about thirty minutes, got that?"

"Yes sir." Kalent saluted as Roin left the house. The other members of the Klessirpemdo looked at him inquisitively and he just shrugged. "Well, I can't argue with Roin's reasoning, so it looks like I'll be going along with his plan." He walked upstairs to get his stuff.

"This really sucks." Elua was the first to speak, "A unit is coming towards us and we're one person short. What are we going to do about that?"

"We'll just have to make due. We don't have time to be concerned about stuff like that." Luna couldn't help but be upset a bit, despite the excitement of getting a second shot at Sarieth. "I'm not happy with this decision, but this is Roin's order, and I don't really feel like causing much of a fuss right now."

"But I have a bad feeling about this…" Lupi really didn't want to see Kalent leave, but she knew that none of them had any say in the matter, especially if Queen Aurelia was involved.

"Don't be so paranoid. Kalent will be fine on his own." Luna continued, "He'll probably be more in danger of being bored to death, if anything."

Kalent came back down a while later, his new sword in hand. "I should be back shortly if all goes without a hitch. It's something I need to do, unfortunately."

"Just make sure you get back quickly, alright?" Luna blurted out. "We need someone to cook for us, of course."

"What about my food?" Heal-do said.

"We all like Kalent's cooking better. You can barely make soup properly, much less feed us for more thana week without making us ill!"

Kalent shook his head and smiled a bit as he left the house, leaving the girls to argue amongst themselves.

* * *

Things continued to move forward. As Roin predicted, Sarieth's unit headed towards the barrier that separated them from Revless, in fact, they got there even faster than expected with the arrival of several horses for them to ride on. Soon, they found themselves on the outskirts of a border that separated them from the Dalkian capital. The sun was starting to go down, giving everything a nice hue of reddish-orange throughout.

"Ugh, I thought we'd never get there." Rhiona grunted as she got off her horse. "That trip was unreasonably long, even with the new horses."

"I didn't have much of a problem. It was actually a pretty short trip." Aeneas answered, though Rhiona knew that it was probably because Eurydice got to ride with him throughout the entire journey. "So there, is this the place that the Dalkians are planning their next move in?"

"Yeah. Whoever is stationed in there is still getting things planned out." Sarieth turned to his crew. "But I assume that it'll be dark before we start fighting."

"So we'll be fighting in the middle of the night AGAIN? Do you know how annoying it is?" Riese complained, but Sarieth didn't seem to be too concerned.

"That's something we'll just have to deal with. I'm sure you'd be able to handle it." The captain turned to Abelia, "Since you're supposed to be helping us along with all of this, do you think you can assist me with the process of coming up with a plan?"

Abelia walked up to him, "Are you sure? You seem to be doing fine on your own, so far."

"I know, I know, but it would be easier with you here. Just help me with this for a bit, will you?"

As the two captains started to talk, the others started work on pitching up the tent that would be their stronghold.

Meanwhile, Luna and her unit were checking out the enemy territory. Actually, her unit was the one doing the scoping; Luna herself was lying casually on the ground, taking a nap.

"Lupi, what are you seeing out there?"

"Well, all I'm seeing is a bunch of people sitting around. It's certainly not a lot of them, that's for sure." She tried to get a decent sight of them from her view scope. "There's this one guy talking to this girl with funny looking hair, though, and I think they're scoping us out."

Aege grabbed the scope out of her hand. "What do you know; her hairstyle does look pretty silly." She laughed, "I wonder if that guy is the one who beat Luna?" She received a punch in the arm for her trouble.

"Quiet!" Elua hissed, "She's still smarting from that defeat, and she doesn't need you to remind her from that."

"Hey, I was just stating facts. If this is the right person, then we'll have to be careful with him." Aege returned to her scope. "Hey, is it just me, or does that guy look a bit like Kalent?"

"I don't see it."

"Me neither. I think Kalent is much cuter." Lupi said off-handedly. Elua snorted.

"Of course _you_ would think that, you are so crushing on him." She said.

"What, of course not! I don't have to have a crush on him to think he's cute. If I liked him, I would just say so. I certainly wouldn't lie about it like you do with Marta…"

"So you wanna go down that route, huh?"

The ruckus was enough to wake Luna up. Seeing two of her friends and loyal soldiers at each other's throats, she calmly defused the situation before it came to blows. "What are you guys doing?" She questioned, causing the both of them to quickly regain their composure.

"Nothing, nothing…" Lupi gently cleared her throat. "Just having a little discussion."

"Right...Either way, calm down, we have work to do." Luna went over to the lookout area and took the scope from Aege. Upon seeing Sarieth, the feeling of anticipation welled up in her stomach again.

"Okay, one thing. You see the brown haired guy in the armor?" She told her unit, "That one is mine. No one else is allowed to beat him but ME, got that?" The unit responded with nods of affirmation.

"So what do you think we should do?"

"Spread out in those for strongholds that surrounds this place. Assuming that the others fail—and they most certainly will—you'll be the ones to try and make a dent in the forces." Luna went to the corner where her Dystopia was resting. "Be prepared to head out on my call."

And with that, both people waited till the sun set. Amongst the light of the moon, soldiers were starting to make their way towards the Grandall forces.

"They're launching their assault now!" Sarieth shouted, "Remember the plan we discussed and get moving!"

In an instant, everybody ran off to their specific point on the field. The plan was to try and split the Dalkians up and take them out one or two at a time. Sarieth himself went down to the front of the line to his nearest stronghold, Abelia following behind him..

"I think someone's already trying to break in the stronghold…" Abelia said quietly. "I think we should surprise them and avoid any prolonged fighting, got that?" Sarieth nodded and snuck around the outside of the base. Two men were busy doing their best to get in the stronghold. He crouched down a little before jumping out of the shadows and attacking one of them.

"Where the hell did you come from?" The other soldier backed away, but Abelia, who had crept around the other side, knocked him out with the hilt of her sword.

"These guys were pathetically weak." Sarieth said after quickly dealing with his opponent. "I think that they're here just as a way to tire us out so we wouldn't be able to take on the real threat just up ahead. I think we should take as much time to rest up between bouts as we can."

"Good idea." Abelia felt better about fighting with Sarieth this time around. "Do you think the others will be all right?"

"I'm sure they're probably just as bored as I am right now."

"That's not the answer I was looking for, Sarieth."

* * *

The initial wave of troops did an absolutely pitiful job. While they weren't as weak as earlier ones (they seemed to actually use a bit more tact when it came to fighting), it didn't change the fact that they were outclassed by soldiers that had less experience as them. So it was up for the Klessirpemdo to do their part, which meant that Heal-Do, Lupi, Elua and Aege had to be the ones to face them.

Elua leaned against the wall outside of her stronghold, waiting for someone to come. She was slowly losing interest in her task, however, and her thoughts slowly turned to Marta. had always liked fighting, but a small part of her wanted this whole war to just to end so she could spend more time with him.

_He's probably bored to death, sitting there in that shop all by himself._ She scrapped her kunai together for a bit and small sparks appeared for a brief second before fading into the night. _Maybe if we win this battle, Luna will gain enough influence to get Roin to put Marta back on active duty. Or maybe it's best that he doesn't get put in such a dangerous situation again after what happened last time…._

Memories of Marta's body lying in that medical tent still terrified her. As much as she wanted to see him back fighting along side her and the other Dalkian soldiers, she didn't want to see him in such a state ever again.

Despite her daydreaming, Elua was alert enough to hear the sounds of rapid footsteps coming her way. _Finally. I was starting to get irritated. _She quickly raised her arm and used one of her kunai to deflect the attack that had aimed right at her.

"What's this?" Riese's eyes focused on the dim view of her new adversary. "How did you know that I was going to attack you?"

"Lucky guess." Elua couldn't help but notice that Riese looked a lot like Heal-Do if she cut her hair short and stopped wearing such formal outfits. "Ah, you know, you kinda look like a friend of mine."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she even uses the exact type swords that you do, though I would say that the ones she has look a lot better than that trash you're wielding." The flash of anger on Riese's face told Elua that she was getting her angry.

"Alright then, since you want to be a smartass, we'll see how you look after this 'trash' cuts you into pieces."

* * *

"I will not allow you to pass!" Aege shouted as soon as Rhiona and Meiga came within distance of her stronghold. "If you want to get through, you will have to defeat me first."

"Really, and what's a small girl like you gonna do with that oversized sword of yours?"

"I'll be more than happy to give you a demonstration if you want." Aege pointed her sword at Meiga, who didn't look more unimpressed than threatened.

"With something that size, I wouldn't be surprised if you did that to yourself first."

"Antagonizing our opponents isn't going to help us win this battle, Meiga." Rhiona said calmly. "We need to just beat her quickly and be on our way. Let me handle her."

"If you insist," Meiga hesitantly stepped aside. "But I wouldn't let my guard down against her if I was you. If it looks like you're in trouble, I'm jumping in."

"How cute. Such a lovely weapon like that is wasted on someone like you."

"Fine…" Riona took out her sword and slowly inched her way towards Aege, "This won't take long, anyway."

* * *

"Ugh…I'm exhausted.

"Don't worry, I'm right behind you." Aeneas ran across the door to the stronghold. "We're here. Give me a hand with this, will you?"

"Okay." Setting her sword on the ground, she took hold of a lower part of Aeneas' lance.

"On the count of three, we are going to use my lance to knock down the wall, we'll get in faster that way." Aeneas said, and when Eurydice nodded in understanding, they took a step back before running straight towards the door. As planned, the wood gave way and both of them crashed through inside.

"EEK!" Heal-Do jumped a bit when that happened. She wasn't expecting anyone to arrive in such a loud, violent fashion. "What are you doing?"

"We're here to take over your stronghold, of course." Aeneas planted his lance on the ground.

"I know that, but I was expecting you to use a less…aggressive method. Oh well…" She picked up her swords, which Aeneas instantly recognized as wave swords.

_I didn't know other people knew how to wield them too! This is unexpected…_ Aeneas had sparred with Riese enough times to know how to defend against the odd-looking weapon, but Eurydice on the other hand…

"I'm ready to go!" The newest member of the team bounded back into the stronghold after she retrieved her sword that she had left outside, but Aeneas quickly held her back. "Hey, Aeneas…"

"Hold your horses. This girl looks like she could be pretty dangerous. Let's not act to rashly." He warned. Eurydice was a graduate, but he was starting to realize that she still was a bit naive when it came to real-life battling.

"She kinda looks like Riese." Eurydice said. Aeneas quickly noticed the similarity.

"Now that you mention it, she does look a lot like Riese with longer hair and less hostile attitude." He concurred. "She's actually pretty cute at that."

Heal-Do resisted the urge to turn red at the comment; she didn't want to lose her focus before the fight actually began. "Please don't joke around. I'm not evil by any means, but for the sake of my country, I will not hesitate to end both of your lives."

"It looks like we're in for a long battle. Eurydice, you'll back me up on this right?" Aeneas asked his partner, and she nodded in affirmation.

* * *

Abelia and Sarieth stood in front of the last stronghold before the main one, and both of them were pretty worn out. The lack of light, while helpful in ambush attacks, was awful when it came to actual fights. The end result was that both of them were a bit tired, but they could see the main stronghold just up ahead from the one they were at now, so it gave them a bit of a second wind. It didn't take long before they were inside.

"Good lord, we have to fight _another_ lance user?" Was all that they could think of the moment they saw their opponent.

Lupi came out of the shadows, Blazecleaver in her clutches. "Good timing, I was starting to get bored in here." She noticed Sarieth's face. "Uh-oh…"

"Uh-oh? What do you mean by-"

"You!" Lupi pointed her lance at Sarieth. "My commander ordered me to let you pass."

"What?"

"She wants to fight you personally, I suppose."

'_She'? This could prove to be interesting._ Sarieth thought to himself. But he had concerns about leaving Abelia by herself. What if this was some kind of trap.

As if hearing his thoughts, Abelia gave him a nudge. "I'm sure this girl is telling the truth. You go on ahead and I'll catch up when I get done with her."

"Alright then, be careful Abelia. I won't be here to bail you out this time." Sarieth exited the stronghold immediately.

"Ah…so then, are you two dating?" Lupi asked casually as soon as she was sure they were alone.

Abelia was caught off guard. "Wha…N-No! That's not it at all! He's the head of the unit."

"Really? I'm very good at reading people's faces, and by the way you looked at him, I can tell you're infatuated."

Abelia's face flushed with irritation. "Why you…No, I will not allow your words to distract me." She pointed her sword at Lupi. "Or are you trying to stall for time because you know you're too weak to do anything?"

"WEAK?" Lupi';s mood quickly turned from nonchalant to anger. "We'll see who's weak when I ram my lance right through your chest!"

"Let's see you try then." Abelia stood her ground as Lupi started to charge straight at her.

* * *

"Looks like I'm on my own for this one."

The massive structure that was being used for the main stronghold stood before Sarieth as the one thing that stood between him and Revless. While this battle hadn't been particularly difficult (at least compared to the incident at the Whelsdat Bridge, of which he was still a bit sore from), but he could not ignore the feeling of dread that coursed through him the closer he got to the gigantic structure.

_Calm down. It'll be fine; you made it this far without dying, right?_ His conscience reassured him. _The quicker we get to the capital, the quicker the war can end and Kalent can come back home. Just one more opponent._

With that, Sarieth pushed opened the door. It was a simple structure; both sides were surrounded with by water and there wasn't a lot of space for them to move around in. Despite the few torches, the full moon was the main thing that lit up the area.

_Well, that's nice. At least I'll be able to see somewhat this time._ Sarieth thought as he looked for the woman that was supposedly waiting for him. A second later, he found himself suddenly falling face first into the hard ground.

"…It's so good to see you as well, Sarieth. Did you miss me?"

It took a moment for Sarieth to get his thoughts back in order, but the familiarity of that voice registered quickly. He lifted his head and saw the girl that gave him so much trouble during his first real battle. "Luna?"

"Didn't I tell you that I would be back to finish this?" Dystopia glimmered in the moonlight as she approached. "It's time to collect on your debt."

"I've should have known..." Sarieth got to his feet and quickly put his sword in a defensive position. "I beat you pretty badly the last time; sure you wanna go at it again?"

"Do you even have to ask me that? Of course I want to fight you again."

"You might have caught me off guard last time, but I definitely know what to expect from you now." His confidence didn't waver in the face of his opponent. "Come on. I'll kick your ass one more time and show you how weak you truly are."

"If you insist..." In a blink, Luna was right in front of him. He could see the malice in her eyes as she attacked.

* * *

"How dull." Kalent muttered as he strolled along the grounds in Maletta. After quite a long trip, they had finally made it to the new kingdom, and while Aurelia and Roin were busy going over whatever strategy they had with the king of this new country, Kalent walked around the castle area, bored out of his mind. It had grown dark, and he was considering going to bed, but opted to stay outside for a few more moments.

_I wonder how everyone's doing?_ Kalent was thinking both about his brother's unit and the Klessirpemdo. Knowing that they were probably fighting each other at this moment gave him a bad feeling in his chest. If he knew Luna, she was probably tearing him to shreds right now. Despite that, part of him knew that his presence would probably have made things even more complicated.

"Feh, looks like I'll have to wait a little longer…" He sighed, reminded "By the looks of it, I should be back in time to meet up with Luna and the other girls."

Kalent heard something strange somewhere behind him. Looking around, he didn't see a thing at first, but then his eyes caught something glimmering in the night.

_Uh-oh…Not a good sign._ Kalent couldn't afford to have anything that could be perceived as a threat to the queen sulking around the threshold of the castle. Grabbing his new sword, he slowly stalked towards the glimmering light. It was only a matter of seconds before he saw the image of swordsman, standing on the ledge of the castle. Even as he got closer, the mysterious sword wielder didn't attack; and Kalent didn't know exactly what to say.

"There's no need to raise your sword. I've have no intention to fight." A female voice replied as she turned to him. Despite her face being hidden by the hood she wore, he could still tell it was a woman under there.

"What are you doing here? Are you on our side?" Kalent chose his words carefully; he didn't want to sound accusing and end up making a enemy if he didn't need to.

"….in a way. I was here to see someone I'm working with, and I thought I'd just take a glance at the scenery before I departed."

Kalent felt embarrassed at his mistake. "Oh. Please forgive my imprudence." He said with remorse.

"It's not a problem. I can understand your suspicion, but I can assure you that your queen is safe."

Kalent glanced saw her strange sword. It was sharp, but it had a curve in the middle of it. It looked very odd. "That's a pretty….unique sword you have there."

"You mean this?" She held up her sword and looked at it. "It's something I had made for me; a sword designed particularly for assassination."

Kalent felt himself tense up. "Assassination?"

"Like I said before, I'm here to assist in the plan your country is working with Maletta on. To be honest though…" Her voice trailed off as she stared back up into the sky. "There's something else I'm fighting for…" She said forlornly.

"And what would that be?" Kalent asked out of curiosity, but she just l shook her head.

"It's nothing important." She turned around. "It's getting late, and there's a long trip to Halteese ahead of me the next day, so I need a bit of sleep."

"Wait, if we're going to be allies, as you say we will be, you can at least tell me your name."

"My name? Already? Such a bold person, we've only just met." She smirked under her hood. "But if you insist on placing a name to this facade, then you may call me Mooncalf."

"Alright then, Mooncalf. My name is Kalent. Kalent Spada."

"Kalent Spada….the one that was enlisted into the Klessirpemdo, I believe?" Kalent nodded in confirmation, and the girl hummed with amusement. "So tell me, how is Luna treating you?"

Kalent was startled by the abruptness of that question. "She's been treating me good, I suppose. She hasn't killed me yet, at least."

"Hmm, Then I'll impart you a little advice before I depart. I know her reputation, but be a little sympathetic for what Luna has gone, and for that matter, is still going through. She didn't a very pleasant childhood, and she is missing something important in her life, but she has yet to either find or even figure out what it is..." She climbed up on the ledge.

"Er…okay, I'll try to remember that the next time she beats me up." He gave her a shy smile. Mooncalf smiled a bit under her hood.

"If our plan comes into fruition, you can expect to see me again very soon. Until we meet again," She gave a small salute before leaping off the balcony. Kalent walked to the spot and looked over the edge, but she was long gone. Kalent was left confounded with questions by that woman's presence, but he knew there was no point in keeping himself up tonight with even more questions; heneeded to get some sleep.

* * *

_Everything seemed so simple at first. Luna was someone that Sarieth had faced before. She thrashed him for most of the battle the last time, so he already had a good understanding of the ins and outs of her fighting style, and she currently wasn't performing too different from her last encounter._

_Yes, Sarieth had everything accounted for. In that case…._

"What's wrong with you? You certainly aren't the same person that I fought with the last time." Luna looked at her opponent with a disappointed frown as he clutched his arm, bleeding from a fresh wound she had just inflicted.

…_Why was he losing?_

Sarieth grit his teeth as he charged forward for another attack, but Luna ducked it effortlessly. Her sword, on the other hand, found his way into his exposed ribcage, leaving yet another wound.

"How slow." Luna used her momentum to knock him to the ground "And how dull. You used to be a more commendable opponent, but now you're just like all of the rest. So sad indeed."

"Shut up!" Sarieth rose up and slammed his head into her stomach, putting her off guard enough for him to smack her away with the wide end of his sword. "Don't get cocky just because you have the advantage!"

"So now you want to get serious…" She spun her sword around a few times. "Thank goodness. I was worried that all of the animosity I felt towards you was for nothing."

Luna leapt into action and clashed swords with her rival once again. Sarieth was desperately trying to regain his focus and not get too frustrated, but every time it looked as if he was starting to gain the advantage, Luna landed another blow. Even with all of his armor, the girl's sword seemed to always find a way to slip between the spaces and hit him. Sarieth, in the meanwhile, was having a hard time hitting Luna with his sword, except for the occasional glancing blow, but even those weren't enough to phase her long enough to mount a comeback. It was the first time that his sword's weight was starting to become a disadvantage.

"Hah!" Luna deflected another swing and swung one of her own. Sarieth decided to gain some space, and he used the sword to knock her to the ground.

"Shit…." Staggering to his feet, Sarieth felt a wave of dizziness go through his head, causing him to shake his head. _What the hell is happening to me? I've faced her before, why am I having so much trouble this time! No, this isn't the time to think about that. Focus all of your energy to defeating the person before you! Questions can come later!_

But as he looked down, he noticed the splatters of blood all over the ground. Only then did he become aware how much damage Luna had inflicting on him.

"You're thinking to yourself, 'How can this girl be besting me so easily', right?" Luna must have thought that her victory was a sure thing, because instead of capitalizing on her opponent's inactivity, she just stood there and yawned. "Did you really think I spent all of this time brooding and didn't learn anything from my last fight?"

"You seem like the kind of girl who thinks she knows everything, so no, I don't."

"Well, that's where you are wrong. You swing around that big sword too carelessly; Every time you miss an attack, you are open for a brief period of time, so I've made sure that you did that more often. My sword can go through chainmail pretty well, don't you think?"

Sarieth looked at his bleeding arm. She was right; Dystopia had cut through his metal like it was made of cotton. He had never had a problem with his sword's size before, but he assumed that Luna was the first one to effectively take advantage of that.

"I do have a confession to make though. To be honest, I'm not really concerned about whether we beat your unit or not."

"You don't care? Then what's the point of this whole thing?"

"…My only reason in participating in this is so I can fight you. At this point, the outcome of this battle is the same no matter what happens here. As talented as my unit is, there will still be a few of your soldiers that will make it past them and come roaring through and we would be at a disadvantage. So I just put you through the motions, as you might say."

"This is all about your petty vendetta? Are you that childish? No, on the other hand, I don't really care. I have something that I have to do and you….are…in…my…way!"

Luna's gloating was getting under Sarieth's skin, and he wasn't going to stand there and listen to her talk down to him like he was still a student

"So you want to do a standoff? Okay, I'll oblige you."

Sarieth blinked once and Luna was already in front of him. Sarieth got ready to defend against any attack she could throw at him. He raised his sword and delivered a hard swipe that he hoped would end this fight the same way it did last time…and missed.

Not only did he miss, but his sword got lodged in a crack on the ground, which gave him little chance to avoid Luna's blade. Sarieth let a strangled sound as he felt the blade pierce him yet again; this has to be the worst beating he had ever received.

Luna watched as blood dripped on the floor. This was the result she had been seeing in her mind ever since the day Sarieth first defeated her. All of the pain and embarrassment she had suffered only made this moment all that sweeter.

"Hopeless fool. You're letting yourself get too overconfident in your own abilities." Luna sent him to the floor with a good kick in the chest. "Where's the aggression? You're not taking this seriously enough. You're just another bright young student who doesn't realize the full gravity of the situation your unit has been put into. You don't have a clue what's really going on around you."

Luna stomped on a wound she left on Sarieth's arm as he hissed in pain. "What, not going to give me to satisfaction of hearing you scream? I certainly hope your friends come soon, or else there won't be enough of you left for them to send to that old bastard Girardot."

"You are…merciless…Luna…" Sarieth found himself saying unexpectedly.

"Naturally. Mercy is a meaningless concept. I'm not going to let such silly things get in the way of victory." She gave him a stiff kick to the ribs. "Think about it, if you had killed me after you won our first battle, this battle probably wouldn't even be taking place right now. But you didn't, and it is, and now you are going to die."

Sarieth didn't care for her flippant attitude, but he couldn't help but wonder if Luna was right. If he could, he could have easily finished her off back at the garrison, but he barely beat her, and even after he did, he was too hurt and tired to do anything, much less finish her off. He never considered how it could have come back to bite him.

"You're not talking; Have you run out of clever things to say now that you're losing? Or maybe you just want me to kill you already? I wanted to make it long and painful, but I suppose I'll be nice for the first time in my life and put you down for good." Luna's sword seemed to shine even brighter during that line. Sarieth growled as he tried to get up, but she stomped on him hard enough to send him back to the hard ground.

His plan was crumbling, and now he was going to pay dearly for it. This situation was extremely different than what happened with Roin; he only thought of Sarieth as just another soldier to defeat. Luna, on the other hand, truly wanted to see him suffer, willing to put a whole squad of soldiers on the line just for that one opportunity.

And here he was, weaponless, lying helplessly on the ground, looking up into the eyes of a girl who had murderous intent seeping from her very soul.

"When I think about it, you look a bit like…Kalent..." Luna said offhandedly, but it was enough to shock Sarieth in the midst of his slowly fading consciousness. How did she know about his brother? And did she say his name with a sense of…familiarity?

"Something I'll have to mention to him when I return. Or even better yet, I'll bring him your head and let him decide for himself." Luna lifted the tip of the blade to Sarieth's throat…

"LUNA! LOOK OUT!"

_That was Elua's voice!_ Luna felt a presence coming down on her, and she quickly jumped out of the way. As she moved, she saw another flash of light. As she thought, someone had tried to attack her from above.

"Sarieth!" The girl crouched next to him. "I won't let you hurt him anymore."

"So you're the girl from last time. Come to protect your cowardly leader?" Luna was willing to fight her as well, and by the look Riese had on her face, she wouldn't have to wait long.

"I'm going to kill you…" Riese was so choked up with rage that she couldn't even think of any way to fight Luna effectively, but that was the last thing on her mind right now.

"I certainly hope you'd do a better job than he did, then." Luna casually nudged Sarieth with her foot. "But I highly doubt it."

Riese shot straight towards her, but before one of her swords could even land a blow, Elua appeared out of nowhere and deflected it.

"Luna….This is bad…" Elua looked a bit worse for wear. "Heal-Do and Aege have been defeated, and Lupi retreated when she found about the others. It looks like we're going to have to withdraw."

"Already? How disappointing." Luna saw the other members of her unit emerge from the darkness. "Then again, it's not that big of a deal. I've already got what I wanted, if only a little bit."

"Your orders?"

"We return to Dalkia. Even if they do make it to the capital, I doubt their leader will be in any condition to do anything other than languish about how weak he is.…" The leader casually waved them off and turned to leave.

"No…."

Luna turned back around and was amazed to see Sarieth staggering to his feet. With everything that she done to him, it was obvious that he was running on sheer will alone.

"…I will not let it end like this." He slowly reached for his sword and picked it up. "If you're still willing to fight, then fight me. I'll prove to you that I'm not weak."

"Not willing to give up? You're bleeding half to death and can barely hold your sword steady, yet you still won't quit?" Luna shook her head in pity. She turned around and started to walk away. "Forget it. I take no satisfaction from killing those in such a pathetic state. I'll let you go this time, in hopes that you'll actually be worth the effort the next time I see you." And with those words, Luna leapt into the darkness.

"Damn her…" Riese's concern for Sarieth outweighed her need to chaise after Luna, especially after she saw Sarieth collapse to his knees as his body succumbed to injuries and exhaustion. "Sarieth…are you alright?" She hurried to his side and helped him up.

The captain let out a weak laugh, his body was starting to give out from stress. "Don't worry…just need….a little rest…." Was all Sarieth could manage said right before he fell to the ground in exhaustion.

He could hear Riese's panic and the voices of Abelia and the others as they rushed over to see what was wrong with their captain. Despite the situation, he could only let out a short laugh as everything slowly faded to black. Sarieth may have (technically) successfully defeated the unit, but he felt like he lost something else…

* * *

"Our mission was a failure. We're never going to hear the end of it now…"

Lupi complained. They had been running for a good while before they reached a clearing next to an old stone house, and everybody had (vocally) opted to stay there for the rest of the night. None of the girls were in the mood to do anything but sleep; Lupi and Luna were the only ones still awake. She was probably the only one beside's Luna that was still very fresh from her battle, mostly due to the fact that it had become a total stalemate when they were forced to retreat. Heal-Do and Aege were both battered and Elua had makeshift gauzes on her arm from her bout.

"Don't worry about it. The fact that I nearly killed him should be satisfactory enough for them at the moment." Luna answered coolly. "Anyway, we have something else to focus on now. We need to get back to the capital and meet up with Kalent."

"Yeah, we've haven't seen him in a while, but why not just wait for him back home?"

"We're not going back home, Lupi. Before we left, I was informed by someone regardless of the outcome, we were to go to Revless and wait for our new orders there."

Lupi slumped in exhaustion. "It never ends, does it?"

"Don't act like you wouldn't be the first one rushing out there with Blazecleaver the moment someone gave you the order to fight."

Her friend instantly lightened up, "Haha, Okay, You got me there." She noticed the blank expression on her leader's face. "You don't seem very pleased, Luna. Are you upset about something?"

"No, no…I'm just still a bit tense to go to sleep at the moment." Luna replied as if there was nothing wrong. "You should get some rest; I'll join the others later after I make sure the area's secure."

Lupi shrugged and went back inside. Luna grumbled a bit as she got up off of the uncomfortable rock she was sitting on. While indeed she had regained her pride and lifted the weight of defeat off of her, she was a bit upset that it was so one-sided.

"All of that anger being used for such a worthless cause. Maybe I wasn't the only one that got complacent in my abilities." She mulled, walking around the area making sure no one had followed her in an attempt to avenge their worthless leader. If she wanted to, she could have killed him even after Riese had decided to interfere, so why did she let him live? Luna wanted to say it was out of pity, but that would be so unlike her it would have been insulting.

_There's no time for me to be entertaining such silly thoughts_. Luna shut out any other questions that came up in her mind. _Sarieth, I expect better from you the next, and hopefully last, time we meet. Don't disappoint me again.  


* * *

_  
Shikkoku: Nothing much to say here. It's been a while, but things been complicated the past few months, so I'm not going to bother explaining my absence because it would just be me repeating the same thing I give you every time. But this chapter was tough to work on. Writing and re-writing and editing some of the more empty parts took its toll on me. It's not perfect, but if I have to revise this thing any longer I'm going to go insane. I'll make a note to go back on this in the future.

_Notes:_

_-This is where the story starts to deviate from the actual plot. Again, not dramatically, but I seriously find it hard to believe that Luna can lose against the same person so many times. So it's going to be more of a bitter feud for both of them._

_-I finally got me a PS3 this past Christmas, and SC4 along with it. Despite that, I haven't made Sarieth, Kalent and Rhiona yet, especially since a good portion of the items from SC3 didn't transfer to this one, making recreating them a little iffy._

_-It's been a long while since I started this story, and while I know that most people don't really care about COTS or this particular story anymore, I'm going to keep this going for as long as I can._

_-Expect a few more OCs in the next chapter as well. I'm going to try to focus a bit more on Riese and Rhiona next chapter as well.  
_

As for when I'm gonna update, to be fair, I'm not sure. I'm trying my best to put time in on this, but I am busy a lot of the time, and I still have a lot of other things to work on at the moment, so we'll have to see.

Next Chapter: After his defeat, questions on his motivation to fight are whirling around in his head. He had wanted to save Kalent, but now that he knows that his brother is perfectly fine, what is it that he wants to protect?

If there's anything you like to point out about this chapter, feel free to tell me. As always, read and review if you can. Until next time.


	11. Unfulfilled

Disclaimer: *Insert clever quirk about me not owning Soul Calibur and how if I did so and so would be in SCV and junk*

Now, back from the dead, and with a brand new (and less stupid sounding name at that) chapter of….

/ / /

Legacy of Arthias

Chapter 11: Unfulfilled

\ \ \

Sarieth slowly started to regain consciousness a few hours later. As tired eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he found himself lying inside a tent. His armor, removed while he was unconscious, had been discarded in a pile next to him, and he was covered with a blanket. Pushing the sheet aside, he slowly sat up as he tried to recall the previous events of last night, his hand absentmindedly brushed against his bandaged-wrapped abdomen. It took only a few seconds afterwards for the memories of what happened to come rushing back. _Luna…_

He fought back a growl when he remembered what she did, but a shot of pain that ran through his torso quickly quelled any anger that threatened to boil up.

Damn that girl… Sarieth eased back into a more comfortable position as he started to contemplate everything that happened over the past day.

Two things had occurred last night that changed his current view of the situation. The first thing was that he lost. The second (and obviously more significant) thing was the revelation that Kalent was okay and still in Dalkia.

That was not to say he thought otherwise. On the contrary; from the beginning, Sarieth had always went on the assumption that his brother was alive. The mere thought of something like that was buried in the back of his consciousness along with all the other doubts he refused to consider. There _was _the question of why he was still over there after all this time, but that was the furthest thing on his mind right now.

He had lost. Despite the fact that they had accomplished their main goal—pushing Dalkian forces further back into the capital—and done it while in a relative disadvantage, Sarieth had let his guard down and Luna made him pay for it; something that the young captain had to admit tended to happen a lot during fights his with extraordinarily skilled opponents. However, unlike the other times, where he always found, by one means or another, a way to attain victory, Luna had already encountered him once, and he suspected that her defeat by his hands had stung her way deeper than he had thought.

"Good morning…" The voice of Rhiona shook him out of his thoughts, as she climbed into the tent, looking like she had only about an hour's worth of sleep at the very most. "How are you feeling?"

"I suppose I could be better, but…." Before Sarieth could finish, Rhiona had already wrapped her arms around him and the words died in his mouth. "I'm sorry, Riona." He gave her a gentle squeeze in response, not wanting to see her break down crying like she often did when they were young. "I screwed up, but everything's fine."

"I know it's not your fault, but don't scare me like that again…" Her voice was muffled by his shirt. "You idiot…"

"Hey now, I get enough of that 'idiot' stuff from Riese already."

"I've been calling you that since we started military school; it's just the first time you've actually been close enough to hear it." Rhiona worked up a smile as she brushed stray tears from her face. "Anyway, are you able to stand up?"

"I'm still quite sore." Sarieth moved around a bit; none of the pain he felt was strong enough to stop him from moving. "…but it looks like I can at least walk. But enough about me, how is everyone else doing?"

"Everyone was a bit messed up last night. I don't know if you could tell, being passed out and all, but we're all still smarting from our respective fights. Apparently all of those girls were part of one unit, and they were extremely skilled."

That news didn't come as a surprise to him whatsoever. "How did you manage to hold them off?"

Rhiona gave a small shrug. "They were probably the strongest ones we've faced so far, but we stood our ground quite well." She paused as she tried to recall last night's events. "I believe Riese was the closest one to actually winning, but she heard that girl talking about finishing you off and…."

She trailed off, but Sarieth knew exactly what she was going to say. It was obvious that Riese blew a gasket and rushed to protect him, as she always would when he was in danger. "Looks like I have to give her my thanks."

"I hope you do that soon. She's been upset since she treated your wounds; last night Aeneas had to hold her down because she wanted to go after those girls. Riese could use some cheering up."

"I bet she does. Poor girl doesn't get as much credit as she deserves sometimes." Riese's unstable emotional state was something the young soldier was all too familiar with. "What about Abelia? Is she an emotional wreck too?"

"Actually, once she got a good look at the extent of your injuries, she was confident that you would be okay." Rhiona rose to her feet. "Speaking of Abelia, she's outside right now, talking to a royal messenger."

"A royal messenger?" That was the last person that Sarieth expected to see. "If that's the case, then it means…"

"Yes, we got a message from the emperor." Rhiona finished as she helped the still tired captain to his feet. "And you're involved as well, but I had to make sure you were well enough to hear it before he announced anything."

"What does he want? It's still a bit too early to be awarding me any medals." The Spada's relationship Emperor Strife had always been a rather shaky one, even at the best of times. Since they usually worked close with the army, however, any flare ups were usually rare. "He's here with _good_ news, right?"

"I'm not sure you'll be happy with what he has to say; all I can tell you is to come out and hear it for yourself." Rhiona gestured outside the tent. "They've been waiting on you, so you better make an appearance soon."

Sarieth didn't really feel like doing much of anything so soon after waking up, but the duties of a captain never stopped, even for injury. "Alright, I'll be out soon. Give me some time to get ready." Sarieth shooed his cousin out of the tent. Gathering his stuff, he put his armor on and composed himself. He probably looked a mess, but his mother told him once that he was the type of person that could look handsome even if he woke up in the middle of the street.

He stumbled a bit when he finally stepped out of the tent. The rest of his unit was already up and active, but they must have assumed that he wouldn't awake so quickly, because his sudden reappearance startled them.

"Wha… Captain? You've woken up already?" Eurydice said. "I thought you were out cold after that fight?"

"How are you feeling? Still sore?" Meiga asked.

"As long as you don't have me doing anything involving actual physical effort, I'll be fine." Sarieth said, waving off the other's concerns for his condition for now. "It should be obvious by now that I can't be rid of that easily." He noticed Riese staring at him, just becoming aware of his recovery.

"Sarieth, I…." She stopped for a second. "Are you okay?"

"Uh…hi." He smiled, "I owe you tremendously. You really saved my neck out there. Quite literally, since I'm sure Luna was probably about to cut my throat..."

"You got that right, idiot." The glare Riese she was giving Sarieth unnerved the young commander. "What the hell happened? How did that trash get so close to killing you in the first place?"

"Well, Riese, it's like you said; your Captain is an idiot." Sarieth rolled his eyes in frustration. "Seriously though, these things just happen sometimes."

Aeneas abruptly inserted himself into the conversation before it got ugly. "I wouldn't worry about Riese at the moment, Sarieth. She's a bit testy after last night."

"I'm not testy! I was just concerned." Riese sounded dejected. "I was so focused on beating up that girl, that I didn't know you were in trouble till it was almost too late."

"Ah ah, no need to blame yourself for what happened." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Riese seemed to ease up a bit. "You're just doing what you had to do."

"If you say so…" Riese said resignedly; Sarieth's words provided little to ease her guilt, and she didn't feel like going further with this issue. "I'm going to get some rest; I've been on watch for hours now."

As Riese sulked to another tent, Sarieth looked at Aeneas, and all his friend could do was shake his head.

"Looks as if this is another case of 'let's leave Riese alone for a while', huh?" Sarieth said. "Getting back to business, where's this messenger they've supposedly sent for me?'

Aeneas gestured to a clearing where three figures where standing. "He's over there chatting it up with Abelia. "

Sarieth turned his head to the three people in question. One was a younger girl wearing a casual outfit, the other was someone adorned in attire that was common wear for people who worked closer to the Emperor. Abelia, in the midst of a conversation with the latter, looked as if as whatever subject this message was about was fairly disquieting.

"….Pardon me…" The royal messenger spoke up. "You are Sarieth Spada, right?"

He nodded. "That I am. And I hear you have something for me?"

"I've been ordered by Emperor Strife himself to give you some news about your newest assignment."

"Assignment? Well, whatever it is, I'm ready to hear it." He couldn't help but be eager to find out what was coming next. Whatever Rhiona was referring to when she stated that he 'wouldn't be pleased' couldn't be THAT bad.

/ / /

"Thank goodness that's over." Kalent talked to himself as he left out of the royal palace. "I didn't take me nearly that long to get here from Grandall as it did to get to Maletta and back..."

Kalent had returned from his assignment with Queen Aurelia, and came back with a newfound respect for how more leisurely his current position to following her around for days on end; Anymore time spent in that cold wasteland of a town and he most likely would have gone insane. He managed, though, and now his main duty was to wait for who knows how long till Luna and the others returned so they could go on their next mission.

From what some of the other soldiers that had been present in the capital had informed him, he knew that something happened at the area where the Klessirpemdo was stationed, but all he heard was that they ended up having to retreat, which more than likely meant that Sarieth had beat her again. And that would mean she would be in a bad mood when she got here and Kalent would probably be her punching bag again for another week.

With that dreadful thought now running around in his head, he stepped out to the courtyard, which was always pleasing to the eye despite the slowly growing cold killing some of the many colorful flowers that usually surrounded it.

"I certainly didn't expect to see you here."

Kalent quickly recognized the voice as Marta. Sure enough, a few seconds later he came bounding down the steps, carrying a relatively large bag in his hand. "What are you doing here? Are you waiting for Eula and the others to return?"

"Actually, I'm usually here to try to get some more scrap for the shop." He dropped the bag, which hit the ground with a loud clunk, "However, I had heard that you and Roin returned, so I decided to see how you were holding up. So, how are you doing?"

"I'm still alive, so I suppose thing are going fine." Kalent answered, "More importantly, how are YOU doing after what happened the last time we met?"

"I wish that was the case, but that little stunt you pulled sort of made me a bit of an outcast. I already had one person try to burn down my shop, and if I didn't have someone keep a look out while I'm gone, I'd probably be going home to a pile of ashes."

Kalent could only offer him a sheepish smile after that tale. "Erm…Sorry?"

"Don't worry, It'll be forgotten in no time. It's amazing how giving away some free items can have a crowd by your side." Marta dismissed the thought with a wave of the hand; It was obvious that it wasn't the first time this has happened to him. "Anyway, how was your trip?"

"DULL." Kalent put as much emphasis on that word as he could. "To be more precise, the country itself wasn't that bad, but the trip and back was absolutely horrendous. If this is a new kingdom, then it'll probably be for the better that they do align with Dalkia now."

"Do you know what they're planning?" Marta asked.

"Not really. Something about Halteese's capital and some junk, but it's still very fuzzy." Kalent shook his head. He was brought along for more protection-related reasons, and while he could have easily took part in any meetings just by benefit of his ranking, he never was one to appreciate the finer points of a strategy session.

As Marta stared pensively at the slowly clearing sky, a question came to Kalent's mind, "Hey Marta, you've known the Klessirpemdo longer than I have, right?"

"Absolutely. Hopefully once I get reinstated, Eula can convince Luna to let me actually join, but she shot down that idea twice already." Marta said, "Some nonsense about me being a detriment to Eula's ability to focus on fighting and stuff like that. What did you want to know?"

"Just for the sake of being curious, what's the story behind this group?"

"Oh, that….Actually, it's a bit complex." Marta relaxed a bit, "Luna, though you might have figured it out yourself, isn't that easy to get along with. While she is certainly a skilled soldier, many of the more experienced commanders had complained to Roin that Luna was difficult to work with due to her belligerent attitude. From what I heard, the Queen was the one to come up with the idea to pair her with people who had similar attitude. She hoped that they'd be more able to get along, and surprisingly enough, they did. It's just so happened that all of those people were girls."

That's certainly one way of explaining it. Kalent decided to press the issue a bit further. "So, you know where Lupi and the other girls come from?"

"I know that Aege was from a military family and that Heal-Do comes from a kind of rich area of the country. Lupi grew up poor though. Military life suited her because she's always been such a hot-headed girl."

"I see that now. What about you and Eula?"

Marta paused a bit, struggling with how exactly he wanted to explain it. "Eula is a war orphan. Right around the time the war started to heat up, her parents were murdered by Halteese invaders. They had done so in a botched attempt to take over a military base, and she ended up paying for it. She had a natural ability for fighting and strategizing, so it was inevitable that she would join the military." He shook her head, "Of course, I had to join her, despite the fact that I was never all that interested in the war to begin with…"

"Because you like her?" Kalent finished.

Marta tried to wave the question off. "Er…of course! She's my best friend after all. I'd do anything for her, including going through torturous military training and all that stuff." "It's not like I had much choice. I can't really do anything else besides fight or sell weapons; chose to fight, but unfortunately…"

"…You got injured." Kalent finished, and got a bitter laugh from Marta in response.

"Injured is a mild way of putting it." He pulled a sleeve of his shirt up enough to show the beginnings of a long, scar that was tattooed on the inside of his arm. "On the brink of death would be more accurate. Eula had to drag me to the medical tent, and even then it took a lot of work to keep my blood from spilling all over the ground."

"The look on her face when I woke up…" Marta's expression turned darker as he continued, "Eula was in much better shape then I was, but she looked broken; as if she had absolutely nothing left in her body. It's not the kind of feeling you want to experience again, and that's partly why Eula is so insistent of me NOT going back on duty. I don't think she could handle it if I got killed. I certainly don't want to even imagine her reaction."

"…I certainly know how that feels." Kalent muttered, and it was true. He remembered the period after Rhiona's father died. For a long time, she was only a shell of her old energetic self, and it took a good amount of effort to bring life back into her, and even then she still had a sense of moroseness radiating from her. He could only assume that Eula didn't want to experience such pain again.

That thought, however, made him want to lighten the mood up. "So, like I said earlier, do you two like each other? You know, in the 'make out' kind of like each other?"

Marta gave him a look that said 'ask her yourself'. "We're just friends, at the moment." He said, not wanting to get into a long discussion about their relationship. "If you want to ask her how she feels, be my guest."

It wasn't very long after that they could hear Luna's voice in the distance, and it sounded a lot less moody the last time he saw her. That was a good sign, but what could she be so happy about when her unit had to retreat?

As soon as they came within distance, Eula had already dropped everything to meet up with Marta. Luna, conversely, didn't look too ecstatic with his presence. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Ah, Luna; can't say I didn't enjoy your brief absence." Marta glared at her over the shoulder of the girl he was hugging. "Heard you lost. Again."

"Oh, on the contrary….we may have been forced to retreat, but I wasn't the one lying on the ground when it was all over." Luna said smugly.

Kalent was about to offer his congratulations, but then he remembered who exactly she'd been fighting that time….

"Luna," Kalent said with a bit of weariness, "Just what happened during your battle?"

"It's simple. I met up with the man that defeated me, and I kicked his ass." Luna said simply. "I probably would have finished him off too, if we weren't forced to turn back."

Kalent blood had gone so cold he could have sworn he wanted to shiver, but he couldn't do anything about it, not at the moment. Besides, he didn't know if Luna was referring to her brother or not. It had been a good number of months since they supposedly met, so they should have brought some re-enforcements…

"Kalent, why do you have that look on your face? Was that trip you went on that bad?" Lupi asked, and Kalent realized that his thoughts were showing on his face.

"Uh, n-no….well yes, it was pretty lousy, but…."

"….Nobody cares about that! We just got back, so let's get back home and relax already!" Despite the rude interruption, Luna seemed to be in a very good mood. "You can tell us all about it afterwards!"

"Actually, we can't go home quite yet…" All the exuberance Luna was showing got sucked out of her with those words, "Queen Aurelia saw fit to grant us another mission as soon as we got back to the capital."

Kalent waited to see how badly Luna would react, but surprisingly enough, she just frowned and mumbled a few curses under her breath.

"Okay, where does she want us to go now?"

"Back to Halteese, apparently. She said it's important to start as soon as possible." Kalent shrugged. "Sorry, but that's just how it goes. Imperial orders and such."

"Alright then, it looks like we're off." Luna turned back around, the other's following suit, though Eula couldn't help to give her friend one more hug before she did.

"Looks like you won't be getting any rest any time soon." Marta shook his head. "Hope you're ready to fight."

Kalent just shot him a look before he turned around and followed his unit out of the capital.

/ / /

"…and such are the orders of Emperor Strife." The messenger finished his statement. As the young man looked up from his paper, however, he realized the mood had changed significantly from the time he started reading the emperor's orders . He instantly assumed that Sarieth wasn't quite happy to hear this news.

"So…let me get this straight…." Sarieth said in as calm a voice as he could muster. "We're within distance of Dalkia's capital, and we have a chance to strike before the military can reinforce the area. So Strife now wants my unit to hand over all responsibility of that task to Abelia, pack up, go all the way to Halteese, try to penetrate their massive defensive wall, and then sit back and wait for reinforcements to arrive, of which in that time we'll be nothing more than a backup unit?"

"That's what it says. Halteese has invaded our country, so we need someone to go into theirs and hopefully cut off the flow of troops before it gets too troublesome…"

His unit looked on with concern; ready to jump into action at the slightest hint that Sarieth would try to cleave the messengers with his sword in response.

"Sarieth, please calm down and act like a rational person!" Riona pleaded, but her cousin had already begun his ranting.

"He thinks he can just dump this on us at a moment's notice…That arrogant little brat…" Sarieth growled as he paced back and forth a bit. He knew his anger would go mostly unnoticed; Even if they were well-received by the public (at least from what they've heard), they couldn't defy the emperor's orders. Besides that, if it was the case of Halteese declaring war was true, then someone had to stop any attempts at an invasion on the Halteese's part. And the fact of the matter was, if Kalent was alive and safe, as he was suspecting, then getting to Dalkia was no longer a matter of urgency.

That epiphany was just the thing he needed to cool himself down. He took a deep breath and turned to his squad, who were glad that they didn't have to deal with the consequence of their captain murdering a public official. "I know that this is a pain, but this is something we just have to deal with. Start packing up; we're going to the Halteese Republic."

Groans of frustration came in response, but his unit obediently left to gather their things. Meanwhile, Sarieth trudged tiredly back into his tent. This wasn't going at all like he wanted. Fresh off getting his hide handed to him by Luna, he was being sent off to face Halteese soldiers, a force, from what Riese had told them, that was way more intense and violent than any Dalkian forces he had faced so far. As crestfallen and injured as he was, though, he refused to show weakness to anyone.

"Sarieth? Are you doing okay?" Abelia entered the tent. "Considering the situation, you're unusually silent about it for once."

He gave his friend a pointed look. "Well, I WAS starting to feel a bit better, but now I'm feeling even worse." Sarieth ran his hands through his head, trying to get a grip about everything he had just witnessed. "With that has happened these past few days, I'm more than a little stressed, you know?"

"Hmm. Why not tell the others to stop packing and take some time to get some more rest?" She asked. Sarieth merely shook his head.

"No, no. Halteese is a ways away, so we need to depart as soon as possible." He managed to muster up a small smile went to retrieve his armor, but winced in pain as the injuries slowly started to make themselves known again. "Erg, At least I won't have to worry about anymore fights for a while; they'd probably aggravate my injuries…" Hopefully, the lingering doubt that he felt would be gone by time he got to Halteese. However, there was still something he had to tell her.

"Hey, Abelia? I have something important that I have to share with you, but I need you to promise you won't tell the others at the moment, okay?"

"Oh dear, what is it? Did you do something at the academy that Girardot hasn't found out about yet?"

"Quite a few things, to be honest, but it's nothing like that. Anyway, right before Luna and her friends retreated—right as she was about to mention something about Kalent." He said, wanting her opinion about what to do.

Abelia was obviously surprised to be hearing that name again. "He's still alive? Are you sure?"

"I certainly haven't fought all this time believing that he was dead." He was slightly offended she would even suggest such a thing. "Anyway, I do not believe Kalent in any danger at the moment, it seemed like he's gotten acquainted with Luna someway or another, though to what extent I can't say."

"Is that the reason you're didn't go into an insane rage when you found out about having to leave Dalkia?" Abelia asked.

"Pretty much, that and I'm too injured for tantrums at the moment." He smiled at his own joke "Anyway, if you do see Kalent, I need you to promise me that you won't cause a big spectacle about it. If word got out that he was a spy, things will probably not end well for him. He'll reveal himself if he knows you're on his side."

"You have my word, Sarieth," Abelia affirmed. "But what about you?"

"What **about** me?" His tone was indignant, "All I can do is keep pushing forward. I made a commitment to this group, and if there's a threat of Halteese invading Grandall, I'll do all I can to avert any assault they have planned. That's all I can do, Abelia."

"Sarieth…" Abelia muttered, but she just continued to gather his things. He was always so stubborn, but that was just the way Sarieth worked. She learned a while ago that it's better not to dig too deeply into the workings that went on inside his head. So rather than that, she merely walked up to the man who was both her rival and her friend and wrapped her arms around him. "Just be careful, alright?"

Sarieth nodded. "I will be, I promise."

_Some time later_.

From the top of a nearby hill, Kalent stared at the border garrison that separated 'his' country and the Halteese. It was an older one, and the soldiers here were fighters, but it was also a flawed structure that could easily be infiltrated, as he and the others were about to do. _This should be simple enough. Well, for me at least._

Kalent slid down the hill and snuck towards the main building. In his hand was one of the bombs he usually kept with him for occasions like this. Unlike his other ones, however, this particular bomb was filled with smoke powder. It wouldn't explode, but it was good for making the environment surrounding the explosion nigh unbeatable. Lighting the fuse, he quietly rolled it inside the tent, repeating the process with the other tent before

I certainly hope Luna knew what she was talking about when she came up with this... Kalent scrambled back to where he started at and pulled out his new sword_. At least I'll have a chance to break this new sword in_. He took a few swings to gain a feel for it._ Nice and smooth, just how I like it._

"So, did you do everything I asked of you?" Luna slid down the hill, coming to a stop just next to him.

"Yeah, the bombs are all in place. They should be scrambling out of their tents in a few seconds."

"Then follow my lead and make sure you don't do anything stupid. Let's see if anything I taught you has sunk into that hard head of yours."

As if on cue, Halteese forces stumbled out of the tent, some coughing incessantly, others desperately fanning away any remaining smoke from their faces.

Luna quickly ran forward and started cutting them down with Dystopia, the blood from the victims flying about as her sword danced in the moonlight. Kalent lost a bit of his concentration as he watched the scene of violence.

Damn; I've never seen someone take down soldiers with such efficiency. Kalent looked on as she struck down another man who had been in the middle of a coughing fit because of the smoke. Was she holding back this much when she was sparring with me? It looks as if she could easily kill me any time she wanted…

The shouts of soldiers broke him from his trance. "Look, it's another one of them over there!"

Kalent turned to see several men and women heading straight at him, weapons drawn and willing to strike the first person they saw which was, unfortunately, him. There wasn't anyway he could get out now, so he clenched his teeth and tried to numb his heart to what he was about to do.

"Please…You're going to need a lot more than that…" His right hand clutching the sword, he spun around and swung to counter the first attack, and ended up clipping the man right in the face. Kalent kicked the now bleeding body right into another soldier, using the distraction and quickly thrust the sword through his sternum, more or less killing him in a matter of seconds.

"Bastard, you'll pay for this!" A young female soldier with a short sword swung wildly at him, aiming for his ribcage, but Kalent quickly parried and quickly ducked out of the way, and as the woman tried to attack, the sword went through her stomach. He watched the girl slump to the ground, and locked eyes with the next person.

Everything was automatic. Even with his new sword, every single thing he did felt so natural it would have scared him how little hesitation he had now when it came to killing. Kalent had trained himself not to concern himself with such things when he was fighting.

As soon as the last man fell, Kalent regained his senses for a moment, and looked around the carnage he had been a part of, trying to see how Luna was doing-As if he really needed to. He found her kicking the body of someone who ended up being one of the captains of that particular unit. She looked at him, her own face stained with traces of blood, with probably the most genuine smile he'd seen on her face since he joined the unit.

"How are you feeling? " She asked, "This is your first battle in a while. Having fun yet?"

The young swordsman paused to let her question sink in a bit. He took a glance at the grassy hill, littered with the bodies of the fallen, before fixing his eyes on the sword-his sword-that just had its first taste of real blood. Looking at Luna again, he felt a bit odd This smiling girl in front of him….Any reasonable person, soldier or not, would consider the sight very disconcerting. Kalent, however, found himself strangely enchanted by her.

"Something wrong?" She tilted her head slightly, and despite the setting they were currently in, Kalent thought it was the cutest thing ever. "Don't wimp out on me now, Star of Heaven. There's more on their way."

Kalent broke out of his slight trance, and turned around. Indeed, he could see the shadows of more soldiers, and unlike the first wave, they were very aware of what was going on. Shaking his head, he ran towards the growing

/

After meeting up the other girls, the six of them unanimously decided that they should take up camp here instead of going further out. So after taking care of the dead bodies—which wasn't long since there was a cliff nearby-they took shelter at a place that, up until just now, was occupied by Halteese soldiers.

Everybody was now asleep, but Kalent couldn't get himself to doze off for some reason. Maybe he still had a bit of energy from the fight, perhaps? He turned over on his cot and looked at Luna; she looked as content as a cat that was sleeping after a good meal. Meanwhile, he was awake, unable to shake off the excess adrenaline from that long battle. That and the stench of blood from his clothes was making it hard to sleep.

_Maybe washing this stuff will burn off this excess energy. _Grabbing his sword, he quietly got up and snuck away from the tent. There was a small stream nearby which was probably his best choice. By time he reached it, Kalent had already started to shed his vest and shirt, and tossed it into the stream, keeping an eye out to make sure it didn't float away. Having to go around shirtless in front of all of those girls wouldn't be a very good idea.

"The blood can get a little out of hand sometimes when you're fighting people with no armor."

_Guess I spoke too soon on that one. _Kalent thought as he heard Lupi walk towards him. "What are you doing up this late?"

"I'm just being nosy. I noticed you were sneaking out, and there's not that much here that anyone would want to wander off to." She knelt next to him. "You feeling okay? I know it's been a while since your last real battle and…."

"There's no need to worry about me, I'm doing okay." He interrupted. "I'm just feeling overwhelmed by everything at the moment. We barely had time to sit down at home and already they're sending us out on another mission.

"It happens. You should have seen me Eula and Aege. That entire tent was a total mess by time it was over, that's why we're using the other one." She smirked, "It's a bit of a shame that we'll be leaving in the morning. I'd love to see the expression on the reserve unit's faces when they arrive to see that an entire unit got destroyed overnight." Kalent couldn't help but find the thought a bit humorous.

"It's pretty nice to see Luna in a good mood though. She was a bit down for a while after her defeat." Lupi continued.

"Really, I couldn't tell." Kalent muttered. "By the way she was laughing at me as she beat the hell out me, I figured she had gotten over it by now."

"Nope. It's just that using you as a practice dummy is a good way of relieving stress to her. I wouldn't think too much on it though; from what I can tell, she thinks of you as a friend now."

"A friend…" Kalent frowned. While Luna had her…quirks, she was always rather accepting of him as a member of the group. However, he didn't think their relationship had gotten that close. "Seriously?"

"Yep, she likes you." Lupi smiled as she started to take off her gloves. "We all do. You fit in quite well in our small group of psychopaths."

"If you say it like that, I'm not sure I appreciate the sentiment."

Lupi laughed kindly as she embraced him from behind. "I was just kidding, Kalent. Besides, it's not like you can say the time you've spent here wasn't enjoyable, right?"

Kalent paused his washing to think about it, "Maaaaybe." He said quietly. It had been a unique experience so far, to be certain. "But it still takes some getting used to. Honestly though, I really just want for this thing to end."

The fiery-haired girl let out a short sigh of frustration at the thought. "We all do, Kalent. But that's just how things are. It doesn't bother me much anymore. Besides, it's not like there's much for us to do once this war ends."

"Hm? Don't you have anyplace to go after this is over?"

"Nope. I left my family long time ago, and considering what happened, I doubt I'll be returning anytime soon." She looked up in the sky. "I don't know what will happen to me after this war. Knowing my luck, I'll probably be dead before it ends, anyway."

"Don't be so pessimistic." Kalent said, "Someone as tough as you will definitely make it out of this war alive."

"Aww, how sweet." Lupi knelt over, leaning far enough so that her hair tickled Kalent's cheek. "But the Flames of Hell aren't quelled so easily." She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I'm going back to sleep. Don't stay up too late; we'll be heading out first thing in the morning."

Kalent nodded absent-mindedly, too nervous to come up with a decent reply. As soon as he could tell she was out of sight, he dunked his head into the river for a few seconds before lifting it back out.

_Forget this war… _Kalent thought grimly as he got back to washing. _These girls are what will probably be the death of me._

Shikkoku: Hiiiiiii….. Well, I can tell you this, this was originally longer, but the chapter got so obscenely long, that I decided to chop it in half. Trust me; it's probably better off that way. The size of the chapter is also partly why it took so long to update, but oh well.

Also, the title has been changed to something a lot less stupid. In hindsight, I don't know why I thought "Tsurugi no Kirokusuru' would make a good title for this story; maybe I wanted something not so cliché, but then again, I was young and dumb when I came up with this story.

Notes:

- _Speaking of old, I'm going to do some revamping of the older chapters. A lot has changed, and the story might be a bit…iffy, if you read this today. It'll mostly just be dialogue changes and small stuff. _

- _Next chapter will be somewhat Rhiona-centric this time around, and Kalent probably won't be featured too prominently in the next two or so chapters. Don't worry; the two brothers' paths are going to intersect sooner than you think._

The other half of this story is already done, but I still have two other stories that desperately need updating, so it'll be a while. Not as long a wait as the last update but still.

Next Chapter: Sarieth and his unit have to deal with getting past a nigh-impassible wall in order to get to Halteese. Rhiona, however, finds herself against someone who ends up being a bigger pain than anything she's faced before.

Until next time.


	12. Blood, Ice, Steel

Disclaimer: Namco owns Soul Calibur. Believe me, if I did, you would bet your ass I would have found some way to stick Luna in SCV.

/ / /

Legacy of Arthias

Chapter 12: Blood/Ice/Steel

\ \ \

"This is going to be a nightmare."

What stood before Sarieth's unit and Halteese was the giant western defensive wall. It was something that he hadn't seen before now, but he had heard plenty of stories about how impenetrable this wall is.

_Many a soldier has fallen in their attempt to breach this wall. It's almost like they're telling us to go and fight an unwinnable battle. _Those were Riese's own words, and he took them to heart. Underestimating the seriousness of this inevitable battle will only lead to their destruction.

Of course, that was not the only issue that the young captain was dealing with. The orders he was given meant that his unit was about to play second fiddle to someone else's, and that still hadn't set right with him.. Most of his unit was getting anxious about all of the news as well. They didn't seem to have the enthusiasm they usually showed before a battle.

Sarieth was leaning against a tree right outside their stronghold, his gaze fixed on that structure, trying to figure some way of getting past it without any casualties on his end. The rest of the unit was scattered around, either trying to keep warm in the cold weather or looking out in case their enemies tried a pre-emptive counter attack, but Sarieth wanted some time alone.

"Sarieth!" Aeneas' said as he found his captain in the middle of his meditation, "Why are you outside? It's absolutely freezing out here!"

"Just trying to come up with a plan of getting us past this giant, almost impassable wall without getting the whole lot of us killed," Sarieth said, "We'll have to push forward eventually, or else they'll probably get word of our impending arrival and strengthen their forces even more."

"It will be quite a challenge, especially with us being in the disadvantage, but I know you'll come through for us."

"Certainly, because you can always rely on me, right?" Sarieth's said with more than a hint of sarcasm. "There's no way I'll…say, absolutely screw up like last time and end up getting our unit killed."

"Hey, what happened with that Luna girl was unforeseen, but that doesn't change the fact that you still made them retreat. Now Abelia can handle the rest of those Dalkian forces on her own."

"I sure hope so." Sarieth still had misgivings about his situation, but they had been put on the back burner in light of the upcoming battle. "I wouldn't mind it if she was still here, though. She's the one who was good with strategy. I just go out there and hope for the best."

The two stared in silence one again at the imposing wall up ahead, the top lined with a fresh covering of snow. Despite the lovely and peaceful scenery that surrounded the whole area, to the young soldier who was trying to get his friends through the area without harm, this place was a death trap.

"Sarieth!" Rhiona's voice came from inside the stronghold, "Reli and some others are here to see you!"

"Reli? What is she doing all the way out here?" Sarieth pushed himself off the tree with a huff, striding into the stronghold, where a young, rusty-haired girl wearing what amounted to a patched together brown and red battle outfit was waiting for him.

"Sir!" Reli bowed deeply the moment Sarieth entered her line of vision. "It's good to see you in good health. I've come bearing news from home."

Reli was one of the various personnel that worked around Sarieth's household to make sure it looked its best day in and day out. While her jobs were many, Reli's main job was to assist Kalent in his daily activities-helping him study, working on swords, splashing him with water when he refused to get up in the morning-but she also showed some proficiency with a scythe she claimed to have 'found' somewhere, and had expressed interest in entering the military. The last time she mentioned that, however, Kalent shut the door on that idea pretty damn quick.

Sarieth was pleased to see such a familiar face after weeks of dealing with nutjobs wanting his head on the end of their swords. "Reli, it's nice to see you too, but did you really come all the way here just for a message?"

"Among other things, yes I did. I was the only one available to go on this trip, as most of the others are busy with other activities." She motioned to the scythe that was strapped to her back for travel. "Since I'm capable of defending myself if need be, I volunteered."

"I appreciate your effort, but we're in enemy territory, and I don't think Kalent would be too happy to hear that his favorite worker got hurt when he gets back." He said. "Next time, have someone from the military escort you if there's the need of giving me important news, okay? You're not really a fighter yet."

Reli flushed at the mention of the young man she served under for so long. "I understand, sir. I will be more conscientious in the future." She bowed once again, though with a slight frown from Sarieth's last statement.

"Good girl. Now, what is it you have for me?" Sarieth couldn't help but be a bit giddy when it came to hearing news from home.

"Oh! Yes, I've come with a gift from your father." She answered. With a heavy grunt, she lifted a sheathed sword in her hands and presented it to the captain. "It's a brand new sword, designed to be more efficient and lighter for use in your future battles."

He took the sword, and it seemed to fit his hands like a dream. In addition, it also was considerably lighter than his old one, which will help him fight a bit more effectively.

"Perfect. Thank you for your effort, Reli, and give father my thanks as soon as you return to Grandall."

Reli gave him an affirmative nod. "I wish I could stay a bit further, but there's someone else that needs to speak with you."

"And who would that be?"

"Why, Sarieth. I certainly hope you hadn't forgotten about me already…" Girardot's voice reached his ears, and Sarieth instinctively stood straight up.

"General Girardot, what are you doing here?" He said in the most polite way he could.

"I got word that you were about to break through Halteese territory, and thought I could lend a hand."

"_Lend a hand?_" Sarieth was skeptical. Why was he all of a sudden trying to insert himself into his unit?

"You really think you could accomplish such a feat on your own?" Girardot asked him, and Sarieth could only frown.

"Well…er…I…" Sarieth stuttered as he tried to come up with a respectable reply. "I could have come up with something…" He ended up muttering.

"As much as I have faith in your ability as a fighter, you have never been the most knowledgeable when it came to strategy. I will admit to the fact that this wall won't be easy to get past. I, however, have confidence that we can get through this as long as you and I are in the same page."

He didn't want to admit it, but Girardot was correct. If there was anyone that could help Sarieth and his unit gets past the wall, it would be him. "Yes, sir."

"Good. I heard you were defeated some time ago, that was certainly surprising." Girardot continued, "I am pleased to see that you haven't let a loss destroy your fighting spirit. It takes a lot of willpower to accept a defeat and try and move past it."

"I don't think I've _completely_ gotten past it, sir. I've just had too much other stuff on my mind lately." Sarieth just couldn't accept such a compliment that he felt unworthy of. "It's still gnawing away in the back of my mind. That damn girl…."

"It's understandable. I've had my share of bitter losses in the battlefield." The general put a hand on his former student's shoulder. "But the thing about that is that there are people who learn to deal with setbacks, and then there are those who let frustration and anger consume them till they lose focus on their original goals. It's important that as long as you are still capable of fighting, that you let experiences like these help you to grow as a soldier, not let them burden you with guilt."

"I understand." Sarieth said, realizing he would have to take those words to heart many times as long as he was a soldier. "Shall I inform the others of your arrival?"

"Yes. Gather everyone here. It's time we come up with a plan."

"Yes, sir." Sarieth quickly left to gather everyone that was outside the structure.

"It's such a strange sight to see him so agreeable like this…" Reli said, "I remember that he wasn't even taking this seriously beforehand."

"War can slowly change a person. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes…." Girardot paused a bit, "My apologies….what was your name, miss?"

"Reli Liolter, sir." She answered. "I'm Kalent's assistant."

"I heard. I remember Kalent talking fondly about you whenever I spoke to him."

"Er…yes. I do my best to please him."

"I also heard that you wished to be a part of the military, right?" Girardot continued, "If you're willing, I don't see how you couldn't get enrolled in the academy."

"That is something I've been thinking of, but I would have no problem with my status as a housekeeper." She bowed, "I must start my journey back home. Please give Sarieth my best wishes, and good luck."

Reli turned around to leave, as Girardot watched her depart, he was slowly reminded of another girl that was under her tutelage not too long ago, but he quickly shook it off. There would be time for reminiscing later.

\ \ \

"Alright guys! Push through the enemies forces! We'll get past that wall no matter what!"

And with those words, the unit charged out of the gate and headed towards the Halteese troops that were waiting for them to come out. They didn't spend much time in strongholds; the order was to take down as many troops as they could, then focus on the barrier. Sarieth, his sole motivation being to keep his friends alive, tore through soldiers on top of soldiers as the battle wore on.

"RAAAAAAAAGH!" Another man was sent flying. They were way more intense than any of the normal soldiers they faced before. But still, they were no match for someone running on emotion and fueled by anger; all of the frustration that he held back since he lost to Luna was being taken out on every person he. The idea of letting everyone down was something he refused to let happen again.

Sarieth was a much hastier commander this time around. He shouted orders during battle, trying to make sure that they kept to the plan as they got closer to the wall, while at the same time, making sure his men was alright. Girardot helped out tremendously; he didn't seem to even break a sweat whenever he was in the middle of combat.

After what seemed like forever, most of the soldiers had been defeated, and they had a clear path to the wall. While it would have been wise to rest up a bit, they had to keep moving while their bodies were still warm or they might freeze to death.

"There it is…" Sarieth sighed in relief as they reached the wall. Once they got through there, the hard part of this battle would be over. "We have to focus all of our strength on this one stronghold in the middle. Quick, before they have time to work up a strategy!"

Compared to the rest of the battle, busting through the stronghold was relatively simple. Any soldier that was still breathing had long since retreated; they were ruefully unprepared for the scenario of anyone getting through that wall. After a long wait, they managed to break through what was thought to be almost impassible. With the hard part taken care of, all that they had left was to take the main stronghold, but there was still someone that stood in their way.

"This is unexpected, but I will not allow you to get into the Halteese Republic." Halphas said.

"Wait, who are you?"

"That's Halphas. He's not only a commander, but he's a member of this country's royal family. He's a pretty big figure in the country, defeating him would be devastating." Riese spoke up. "Let me handle him, I think I can deal with him quite quickly."

"If that's what you want, knock yourself out." Sarieth replied.

"Don't you dare act like I'm some mere grunt. I am a member of the royal family and…."

"I'm not in that great of a mood today, so I suggest you shut your mouth and die as fast as you can." And with that, Riese started her attack.

In spite of his look, Halphas was no slouch, slashing and cutting away at Riese as much as he could. Despite the similar weapons, his moves were a lot more calculated than the always aggressive soldier; he picked and chooses his spots wisely, making it hard for Riese to put up a decent defense. Every time she tried to put up some offense, she was shut down quickly.

It was a matter of moments before she found herself kneeling on the ground, blood oozing from somewhere on her body.

"That's it, I'm stepping in…" Sarieth was tired of seeing his friend getting thrown around like this, but Riese wouldn't have any of it.

"Stay out of this!" She shouted, "I will be the one to take his life!"

Sarieth looked at her incredulously. "Are you insane?!"

"I think this is a matter of pride for her, Sarieth. Let her handle this one, I have faith she can get through this."

"Such talk from someone on her knees." Halphas said in confidence of his inevitable victory. "Well, are you going to accept your death like a good little girl?"

Riese grit her teeth in frustration, but held back on going all-out berserk on him. That's what he was expecting her to do, and while that usually was her way of solving issues, it wouldn't work in this situation. So, calming herself down, Riese revised her strategy.

The moment she got back to her feet, he went to resume her attack, but Riese wasn't having any of it. In order to confuse her opponent, she mixed up her offense, utilizing both her wave swords along with physical attacks. Halphas was incapable of adapting to her attacks, and slowly started to lose the advantage.

In the end, Riese put in all of her power into one last attack, hitting Halphas with enough force to damage his arm and give him a huge wound on his chest. The formerly cocky prince found himself kneeling before the blue haired soldier, who was glaring daggers at him.

"I will not be defeated so easily!" Halphas slowly regained his footing. Despite his wounds, his pride would not allow him to accept his loss, "especially to a traitor like you."

"What?"

"You thought I didn't know who exactly you are?" Through all the pain, he gave her a weak smirk. "I was the one who ordered for the execution of your parents, after all. I remember that expression on your face when the life slowly faded from their bodies; it was _priceless._" Halphas saw the flustered look on her face and couldn't stop the laugh from escaping his throat. "Worthless dogs. All that we did for those two, and how do they repay us? They try and turn their backs on the country because of so-called 'abuses' the royal family was accused of by certain people. I'm not surprised at all that you turned out to be a defector as well."

Halphas stumbled away, heading towards the stronghold. Riese was about to take chase, but Sarieth and several others held her back!

"LET ME GO!" Riese struggled against their grip, "He ruined my life! My parents…He murdered my…."

"Calm down! You're going to get yourself injured further!" Aeneas struggled to maintain the grip on his friend.

"But he's- I'm not a turncoat! I was just…I was just trying to…." Riese eventually stopped thrashing around, slumping to the ground as they let her go. "I'm not a bad person…"

"Nobody thinks any less of you because of what happened." Girardot said in his most calm voice, "Those were just words from a man unwilling to let you enjoy your victory."

Riese didn't say anything in response, but she pulled herself up to her feet. Sarieth tried to console his emotionally tormented friend, but she merely brushed him off and headed straight to the strong hold they had just left. The unit decided to go ahead and let her be alone.

On that note, and with their mission basically accomplished, they headed straight towards the smaller stronghold that Halphas had hid himself in, the stinging cold slowly sapping their strength.

\ \ \

Halphas let out a relieved sigh when he reached his stronghold. He was safe for the moment, but he didn't have time to rest. His sister had been hidden in the stronghold for her own safety. His first priority was to get her out of there and head towards safer ground. After that, he could come up with a way to pay that little tramp back.

"Revenge will come eventually. Just they wait." Half-woozy from his injuries, he stumbled through the halls to try and find where his sister was lying low at, but every one of the rooms was empty. Initially he assumed that she was somewhere in hiding, but as he passed by one last door, he could sense something wrong.

The moment he opened the door, he was greeted with an overwhelming scent of fresh blood. It wasn't anything that he wasn't accustomed to being a soldier, but he wasn't expecting such an overwhelming odor at his own stronghold. But that was barely an issue compared to what lay before him.

Lying on the ground was the mutilated body of his sister. Blood seeped from the slash on her throat and pooled all around her gaunt body. And standing above her, was a woman. Her attire was somewhat strange; between the dark cloak, and the claw that was attached to her right hand and that curved sword, it didn't look like any soldier he'd seen here today.

"Hi. Your forces didn't do a very good job of fortifying this stronghold." She slowly prowled towards the helpless man, "Ugh…do you know how many times I've said that over the past few weeks? It's so repetitive."

"Wha—Who are you? What did you do to my sister?!"

"Judging by the fact she's sprawled out in a pool of blood, I'd say it's quite obvious what just happened."

"So, this was all Grandall's plan? To distract everyone, leaving my sister vulnerable for your sick attack?"

"Grandall? I have no allegiance with them or any other nation caught up in this miserable war of attrition." She took out her curved sword. "This is merely a matter of revenge. My sole goal is two things: The Halteese Royal Family must be destroyed. The entire country must fall. That's it."

"What good would killing any of us do? The country is a republic now; we're more or less just mere political figures now!" Halphas stammered, hoping that she would realize the pointlessness of her actions.

"That may be true, but I've never been one to worry about small details."

Halphas turned around and ran out of the room, but found himself on the ground only after a few steps. Any attempt at getting up was stopped by the foot on his chest.

"Now then, I'm going to ask you something, and your answer will decide whether you get blessed with a painless job, or the slow, painful, agonizing torture that makes even the strongest man plead for the embrace of death." She pointed her sword right at his throat. "Where is my daughter?"

"Daughter? What are you talking about?"

"Sorry, wrong answer." Her tone was as icy as the snow that covered the landscape around them. "Off to hell you go."

\ \ \

"Ow! You're pulling it too hard!"

Rhiona was in the midst of getting a small wound bandaged up by Meiga. They were sitting right outside the last stronghold, as it was a bit smaller than expected for everyone to fit in as they were warming up from the cold. Sarieth had decided to wait for a bit before they moved forward just incase they was any tricks in store for them.

"Stop squirming and I would be able to do it better!" Meiga mumbled as he finished tying up the bandage. "There you go. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" He got smacked in the head in response.

"You are such a jerk sometimes." One of the Halteese soldiers had gotten a lucky shot in during the battle. Rhiona had barely felt it at first, but it was starting to get quite sore. Meiga, who through some stroke of luck managed to come out of his battles relatively unscathed, offered to help patch it up right quick. So, sitting around the perimeter of the stronghold in the snowy grass, Rhiona let him tend to her wounds.

While they had broken through the wall, nobody was feeling any sense of triumph at the moment. Rhiona herself felt like sleeping for 3 days straight after such an exhausting task, and she would be surprised if Sarieth wasn't in there half-asleep right now.

"Thank the stars we've made it out okay." As she put on her chainmail and armor, she took in the sight of the structure a short distance away. "Anyway, what are we going to do now? Just grab the stronghold, fortify it and go on our way?"

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, that's all that's left for us at this moment." Meiga replied, still rubbing the spot where she hit her. "It's been a while since we've seen any enemy forces; we should be in the clear by now."

"I guess we should take over the stronghold and get it over with already. I'll go get my-What?"

"What's the matter?"

"I think I just heard a noise." She stared at the stronghold right in front of them. "Sounded like strangled cry from somebody, and it was coming from that stronghold in front of us."

Meiga turned to the stronghold, then back at Rhiona, then back at the stronghold once more. "And you heard that all the way _out here_?"

"Yeah, it _was_ quite loud." She was surprised no one else noticed it, but then again, everyone was too drained from the battle to even talk, let alone listen for minute noises from a good distance.

"It's probably that guy we just fought tending to that wound Riese gave him. I wouldn't bother with him any further."

Rhiona picked up her sword that she laid on the snow. "I don't think he would scream that loud just from that. Something's happening inside."

"Okay, let's say you're right; what are we expected to do abut it? I don't think we can simply strut over there and check things out. What if we get ambushed?!"

"I doubt it. Borders like this don't usually have all that many soldiers to begin with. Besides, I severely doubt they had foresight to consider the idea of someone actually breaching the wall, so they don't have any reinforcements either."

"Or that is what they expect us to think…"

"A possibility, I'll give you that." Rhiona pondered her next move. She could just ignore it, let Halphas limp away, and spend the rest of the day relaxing, or go inside and do a quick go-around in the stronghold and not have that thought nag her throughout the day. She really didn't need to, but she did her best not to leave any stone unturned.

"I'm going in." She said with finality in her voice. "Come if you want, but if you try to stop me…."

Meiga gave a long frustrated breath. What else could he do but go with her? If she got hurt, Sarieth would probably have his head. "No, that's fine. I'm right behind you."

/ / /

It was nothing noteworthy about the inside, though Rhiona had to admit to herself that the rooms were very fancy for a military-centric structure. They inspected as many rooms as possible, eyes searching for any sign of life each time the two entered. As they continued, however, it became apparent that there wasn't anyone left to be found in this building.

"I suppose I'll have to admit I was wrong. There's not a soul here." Rhiona finally said, not wanting to spend anymore time walking around aimlessly. "Meiga, let's head back before someone notices we're gone."

"Way ahead of you there." Meiga had already started to leave. "I'm going to go back and take a nap."

"You're always sleeping. One day we're going to leave you behind in your tent." Rhiona teased. As the young girl started to follow him, in the corner of her eye, she saw a figure move quickly down the hall. "Huh? Hey, Meiga!" She said, but he had gone long out of earshot to hear her. "Damn it. Fine, I'll go check it out myself."

Rhiona cautiously treaded towards the other side of the hall, checking each open door for any sign of life. Upon reaching the room, she instantly noticed the crimson trail that led into the room, and an even bloodier set of footprints that went out. "What the hell is this?"

Steeling herself for whatever grotesque sight she would probably see, Rhiona slowly raised her sword, ready to strike if need be. Fortunately, the only thing she was greeted with upon entering the room was the stench of death and two fresh corpses, one of which was the person they had just defeated, slumped over in the corner of the room. His wounds told her that someone else was the one to finally take him down.

_I was right. Imagine that._ She knelt down and looked at the wound. Someone else was in the barricade, that part was obvious. Rhiona thought about running back to the unit and informing them about it, but her intuition was bugging her to go take this person down herself. Whoever it is, she had to make sure.

Kneeling down next to Halphas, she closed her eyes and muttered last rites for a few seconds. It was only right, after all.

The trail of blood went out the doorway and disappeared around a corner, so she it would lead to this mysterious assassin. If she was lucky, she could catch this person off guard and gets a quick kill, but that didn't seem likely. Plowing through a door, she ended up in a large open area with a view of the snowy landscape surrounding her. At the center of the room was a woman leaning against the balcony right across from Rhiona. By the way her expression was, either she wasn't worried about being caught, or…

"Already know that you're here. Sorry." She turned around. "So the captain of this unit is a female? My, Grandall certainly is thinking outside the box. That's kind of surprising."

Rhiona felt sheer dread creeping up her spine. "I-I'm not a captain." Her words wavered. She could barely make out that woman's face under the hooded cape she wore; it was just red hair and a smirk that said 'I could kill you before you can even touch the hilt of your sword'.

"Oh. Doesn't make much of a difference, however, considering what is about to happen to you."

"D-did you kill….?"

"That miserable worm? You should know that he had that coming to him for a loooong time; Him and his entire family for that matter."

"Problem? If you're not fighting for Halteese, then why are you going to fight me?"

"The answer is quite clear, my dear little girl." She took out her sword, "My desire is for the entire Halteese Republic to be destroyed. But I refuse to let it be destroyed by a country as pathetic as yours. I recommend you retreat and go back to fighting Dalkia."

"I don't know who you are, but I will not allow you to insult my home and get away with it." She readied herself for a difficult fight. "In the name of Grandall, I will…"

Rhiona didn't have a chance to finish before the woman was in front of her, sword raised in the air. She blocked the attack.

"'You'll what? Don't really have time to listen to speeches about 'honor' and such nonsense." The mysterious woman taunted. "Come on. Show me what you got."

The female Sparda found herself in the mist of her first real battle by herself, and her opponent was tough. Rhiona ran forward and tried to catch her off guard with a few quick slices with the Chinese Blade, but that girl seemed to be ready for her. When SHE attacked, though, Rhiona kept feeling the sensation of blood seeping from her wounded arm, and also from a cut on her face, but she was so intent on defeating this girl, her mind wouldn't register anything but her opponent.

"Too slow…" The woman parried one of Rhiona's slashes and kicked her in the stomach. Unfortunately, she wasn't staggered for very long and continued to try and attack her. She got a few glances here and there, but because Rhiona's weapon was so short, she needed to get into range of the woman's own weapon in order to have a chance of getting a critical blow, which made it much easier for her to counter.

Rhiona grit her teeth in frustration; she was starting to regret impulsively going on her own instead of getting backup, but it was a moot point now. This girl was too agile and effective in fighting against her rather straightforward sword attacks, and she was running out of viable strategies. Everything that she had worked so hard for was slowly slipping away by the second. _Father...I…can't…._

"How sad. I was hoping for at least a decent fight after all these months of pathetic weaklings, one after another." The woman gave her opponent a stiff kick that sent her against the wall. "I'm disappointed. And I was admiring your sword, too." She walked closer. "I don't want to kill such a young girl, but I have something I need to fight for, and I can't allow you to live."

As she perched closer to go in for the decisive strike, she heard her next victim mutter something to herself.

"What was that? I can't hear you…OOF!" Rhiona had kicked her hard enough to send her sprawling to the floor.

"As I was saying…" Rhiona voice had renewed vigor in it. "I, too, am fighting for something. And I will not allow you to take that away from me. En Garde…"

The woman couldn't help but smile at Rhiona's determination. "Well now, looks like there's hope for you yet, girl." She said, "You should be happy that you'll be the few people I faced that died with their dignity in tact."

Rhiona decided to deceive her opponent, so when she went to strike, when the woman rose to try and block, she quickly sidestepped and targeted her blind spot. One stroke, and she had finally spilled some of that woman's blood on her blade, but she wasn't about to quit now. She used all of her effort to try and inflict as much damage as she could, even as the effects of battle were finally taking its toll on her body. After a well-placed knee to the sternum, Mooncalf finally was able to push Rhiona off of her and gain some much-needed space.

"That….was…pretty...good…." She panted as she got back up. "We seemed to be…at a stalemate for the moment…"

"Yes, I suppose you are right." Rhiona replied.

The two of them were silent, both contemplating their next possible move. However, that was interrupted by the sound of footsteps and voices that grew louder by the second.

"Rhiona!" She could recognize her cousin's voice a mile away, "Are you okay? Where are you at?"

"Dear me. Unfortunately I can't really account for guests at the moment." Mooncalf made an amused sound. "Looks like this fight has reached its conclusion. For now at least."

Sarieth reached the room with Meiga in tow, and ended up with the sight of his cousin and another woman looking like they fell off a cliff. The other lady was bleeding from the side, yet barely seemed to be affected by it.

"I don't have time to deal with you at the moment." Mooncalf jumped on the railing. "Rhiona, if fate permits, we shall fight again. Farewell." She disappeared into the snowy forest.

"What the…" Sarieth could only say before turning his attention to Rhiona. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm in a lot better shape than you was a short time ago." She laughed weakly. "But really, it's nothing I can't patch up."

"You sure got yourself in a bit of a mess." Meiga said, "Who was that girl who took off as soon as we got there?"

"Some girl….She killed that guy from earlier." Rhiona slowly picked herself up from the ground. "She's been killing off the royal family. For some reason, she wants Halteese to fall, but doesn't want us to be the ones to do so."

"That's certainly something unexpected." Sarieth was extremely confused with this new situation. Now they had to deal with rouges trying to destroy their own country? It just got more complex with each day. "Let's get you back and we'll see what Girardot has to say about it."

"Yes, sir…" Rhiona let Sarieth assist her back to the other stronghold.

"It must have been some battle." Meiga added as they slowly walked down the hall, "Shame I didn't get a chance to see it. You must have done a number on her if you're still standing."

Rhiona looked at him through the corner of her eye, the faintest of smiles on her face. "Meiga, all I'm concerned with is getting back to camp. Leave the shower of praise and compliments for when I'm recovered enough to gloat about it."

/ / /

That was rather quick. I finally gave Rhiona her own time to shine, and I think she did pretty damn well, don't you think?

Notes:

_- I'm sure some might wonder why I pretty much went past the actual battle and straight towards the Halphas fight, right? Part of me wanted to, but I knew that having meaningless scenes where every character fights some mooks for the sake of showing them fight would only make it longer than this needed to be._

_- If you're wondering if this whole Meiga/Rhiona thing is leading somewhere, then you're probably on the right track..._

_- Also, I'll try to give some of the other characters (like Riese and Eurydice), a bit more time next chapter. Don't expect much with Kalent next chapter either, though. He'll probably get a throw away scene, but he won't be featured too prominently till probably the chapter after this, when things start to get much more interesting…_

_- And expect a(nother) new OC next chapter._

Next Chapter: After a long and harrowing battle to get into Halteese, Sarieth's unit arrives at the capital only to find that another army has beat them to the punch. And they left quite a mess for them to clean up.

Per usual, reviews and stuff is always appreciated. So, Until next time, Sayonara…


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